CRICKET COACH WOOLMER 'POISONED' !

Woolmer's remains were flown to South Africa on Sunday. Pakistan's cricket coach Bob Woolmer, who died of strangulation earlier this year, was also poisoned, a BBC investigation has learned.
The results of toxicology tests mean it now seems certain the ex-England player was rendered helpless before being strangled, the Panorama programme says.
Woolmer's murder in March during the Cricket World Cup in the West Indies cast a shadow over the tournament.
His remains were flown back to his home in Cape Town in South Africa on Sunday.
The casket, which had been sealed in a large wooden crate, arrived on board a commercial flight to Cape Town's International Airport from Jamaica.
He was found dead in his Kingston hotel on 18 March, the day after his side lost to Ireland in the World Cup.
A post-mortem examination said he had been strangled.
On 20 April the inquest into the death was postponed because the coroner was advised there had been "recent and significant developments".
Now a Panorama investigation has learned that a toxicology report on Woolmer's body shows that there was a drug in his body that would have incapacitated him.
The final results of the report are due to be given to Jamaican police next week.

Some 30 detectives are investigating Woolmer's death.
"Those tests will show there was a drug in his system that would have incapacitated Mr Woolmer," Panorama's Adam Parsons says.
"It now seems certain that as he was being strangled, he'd already been rendered helpless - leaving him unable to fight back.
"The specific details of that poison are now very likely to offer a significant lead to finding his murderer."
The policeman leading the murder investigation, Mark Shields, told Panorama that it is "difficult and it's rare" for one man to strangle another.
"A lot of force would be needed to do that. Bob Woolmer was a large man and that's why one could argue that it was an extremely strong person or maybe more than one person.
"But equally the lack of external injuries suggests that there might be some other factors and that's what we're looking into at the moment."
Family spokesman Gareth Pyne-James told the Associated Press news agency that Woolmer's funeral in South Africa would be a private ceremony.
"Arrangements have been made and the family will decide whether it's going to be an interment or cremation," Theo Rix, from a local funeral home, told Reuters news agency.

Panorama: Murder at the World Cup will be broadcast on BBC1 at 20:30 BST, Monday.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

SUDAN READY FOR NEW DARFUR TALKS !

More than 2m people are living in camps after four years of conflict. Sudan's government says it will meet Darfur rebels for talks being organised by the South Sudanese authorities.
Foreign Minister Lam Akol told the BBC he hoped the rebels would attend the meeting, which is due to be held in the South Sudan capital, Juba, next month.
One Darfur rebel leader said various leaders were meeting in North Darfur early on Sunday when their talks were interrupted by a government air raid.
At least 200,000 people have died since the conflict began, the UN estimates.
Past attempts at bringing the rebel groups and the Sudan government to the discussion have failed, partly due to divisions among the rebel groups.
Hopes
Sudan Liberation Movement chairman Ahmed Abdul Shaffi said the various factions first had to agree on a common position before they could begin talks with the government.
Several people were wounded and a government helicopter was brought down when the air raid took place, Mr Shaffi told Reuters news agency.
The Sudanese military say one of their helicopters has disappeared in north Darfur, and they are now searching for it.
A peace deal was signed last year in Nigeria with one Darfur rebel group, but it has failed to stop the conflict.
The BBC's Alfred Taban in Khartoum says the chances of talks taking place are better than before.
He says the southern government is trying to boost the peace process because international donors have said unless there is peace in Darfur, there will be limited money going into the south for reconstruction following the peace deal there.
The 21-year conflict between north and south ended in 2005, with an autonomous government in the south.
On Sunday, protests took place around the world to demand intervention to end the fighting in Sudan's Darfur region to mark the fourth anniversary of the conflict.
Under the slogan "Time is up... protect Darfur", demonstrators in some 35 capitals turned round some 10,000 hourglasses filled with fake blood to highlight the continuing violence in Darfur.
Pressure
But Sudan's foreign minister warned that external pressure on the government would not work.
"Those who think that the government will act under pressure are making a grave mistake. We do what we think is right for our people and this is what we have been doing all along," Mr Akol told the BBC's Network Africa.
What was originally a conflict between the Sudanese government and rebel groups in Darfur opposed to it has now spilled over into Chad and the Central African Republic.
Last year the government of Sudan agreed in principle to accept a joint African Union/UN peacekeeping force but Khartoum wants the force to be mostly African in composition and for the African Union to take the leading role, not the UN.
There has been a lot of diplomatic debate between Washington, Beijing, New York and Khartoum recently as international pressure is brought to bear on Sudan's government, BBC UN correspondent Laura Trevelyan notes.
The US and the UK have been persuaded to hold off on imposing sanctions against the Sudanese government for now to see if Khartoum does shift significantly and allow for a major deployment of peacekeepers.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

WEILDING THE PRESIDENTIAL VETO !

Wielding the presidential veto.
By Laura Smith-Spark BBC News, Washington.

George W Bush used his veto for the first time on a stem cell bill. US leader George W Bush is preparing to exercise his presidential veto for only the second time in seven years of office.
The move has been prompted by the approval by Congress of a bill linking war funding to a timetable for withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq.
The Democrat-controlled Congress passed the bill narrowly despite Mr Bush's repeated threats to veto it.
Once the bill is presented to Mr Bush, he will have 10 days in which to return it to Congress with his objections - but is expected to do so sooner.
Both the House and Senate will then have to muster a two-thirds majority in favour of the bill if they are to override the veto.
Given the Democrats' slim majorities they are highly unlikely to succeed, meaning the legislation will have to be revised and approved in both Houses again before returning to the president.
So how much significance does the veto have - and can we expect to see it wielded more often in future?
Powerful tool
Mr Bush has made very little use of what is undoubtedly one of the most powerful tools the president has to rein in Congress.

PRESIDENTS' VETOES
Highest number exercised:
F D Roosevelt (1933-45) - 372
G Cleveland (1885-89 & 1893-97) - 346
H S Truman (1945-53) - 180
DD Eisenhower (1953-61) - 73
Most recent presidents:
Ronald Reagan (1981-89) - 39
George Bush (1989-93) - 29
Bill Clinton (1993-2001) - 36
George W Bush (2001-) - 1

Figures for regular vetoes only; pocket vetoes are not included.

His only previous veto came last year, when he refused to sign into law a controversial bill which would have lifted a ban on federal funding for new embryonic stem cell research.
In waiting until the fifth year of his presidency to do so, Mr Bush became the first president to complete four years in office without a veto since John Quincy Adams in the 1820s.
His predecessors at the White House have made far greater use of the measure.
The biggest veto-er in US history is Franklin D Roosevelt with 635, of which 372 were regular vetoes and 263 so-called pocket vetoes, whereby if Congress adjourns before meeting the president's objections, the bill does not become law.
Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th US president, comes second, having exercised his regular veto 304 times in his first term and 42 in his second.
Former President Bill Clinton used his power of regular veto 36 times, twice to impede bills passed by Congress to ban a late-term abortion procedure. Only two of his vetoes were over-turned by Congress.
The current president's father, George H W Bush, wielded the power of direct veto on 29 occasions and had 15 pocket vetoes.
Executive discipline
According to political analyst Larry Sabato, Mr Bush's reluctance to exercise his veto during six years of Republican-controlled Congress, before the Democrats gained sway last year, may have hurt him and his party.
"Other presidents have used the veto hundreds of times," says Mr Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.
"This is one of the least impressive aspects of the Bush presidency - it suggests weakness and it has been a major mistake by Bush.
"His failure to veto bills during the periods of Republican-controlled Congress meant he allowed spending to get completely out of hand.
"They would have benefited from discipline. That is what the veto is - it's executive discipline applied to the Congress."
On the other hand, Mr Sabato believes Mr Bush's threat to veto the war funding bill played into the Democrats' hands because it allowed them to propose legislation that they knew could never be passed but which was popular with supporters.
There are likely to be more such legislative deadlocks before Mr Bush's presidency comes to an end.

The White House has warned troops will suffer hardship without funds.
John Sides, assistant professor of political science at George Washington University, says: "This is the beginning of a lot of conflict between the Congress and the president.
"He was able to work quite harmoniously with the Republican Congress in the first six years of his term in office, in some ways because the president's agenda was really leading the congressional agenda.
"Leaders in Congress were very conscious of being loyal to him. But when the president's approval rating starts to go down, people start jumping ship - or at least looking longingly overboard."
In the period following the 9/11 terror attacks, the president made broad use of executive powers and faced little opposition in Congress.
As the number of investigations into his administration's handling of affairs multiplies, however, Mr Bush may suffer from a perception that he has not been interested in involving Congress, Mr Sides says.
Once Mr Bush has used his veto, the pressure will be on both sides to reach agreement on a new bill before funding for US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan runs out in the summer.
"Ultimately there will be some effort to achieve a compromise of sorts and the question is, who will blink first?" says Mr Sides.
"There's a game of chicken going on and we will see who veers off first."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

U.N. LIFTS LIBERIA DIAMOND SALE BAN !

Liberia must join an international diamond-certification scheme. The United Nations Security Council has voted to lift a 2001 ban on the export of diamonds from Liberia.
The ban was meant to stop proceeds from the sale of so-called "blood diamonds" fuelling wars in West African nations.
Correspondents say the UN decided Liberia has made enough progress, but that it must certify diamonds for sale do not originate from conflict zones.
Two years ago Liberia elected its first democratic leader, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, since its civil war.
Employment hopes
The 15-nation Security Council unanimously passed the resolution, including a provision to review the decision after 90 days, council president, British ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, said.
Nearly half of the world's diamonds come from west, central and southern Africa.
But the lucrative trade fuelled conflicts in countries such as Angola, Congo, Sierra Leone and Liberia, as rebel groups fought for control of diamonds and found willing international buyers to finance their activities.
Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf had pressed for the ban to be lifted, arguing that funds were desperately needed to improve living standards in Liberia.
Unemployment is at 85% in the West African nation, and this is a chance to create much needed jobs and reinvigorate the country's economy, says the BBC's Laura Trevelyan at the UN.
Liberia must now sign up to the Kimberley Process, the UN says, to ensure it does not revert to exporting conflict diamonds.
The international diamond certification scheme, established in May 2000, tracks the origin of diamonds on the international market.
This is the council's second vote of confidence in Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf's presidency. In June it lifted an embargo on Liberian wood.
Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf, who took office in January 2006, was the first woman to be elected president of an African country.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

Cathy Buckle's Weekly Letter from Zimbabwe !

SUBVU!

Dear Family and Friends,

Having spent three weeks in a civilized country south of Zimbabwe, I must admit that there were many things that made me not want to come home. Food was one thing - its existence, huge variety and consistent pricing. Money was another thing - coins that are actually worth something, bank notes that don't have expiry dates printed on them and money that keeps its value from one week to the next. Then there was the freedom of the media with abundant newspaper and radiostations with criticism and debate encouraged. There was the joy of petrol stations that always had fuel and of being able to travel freely without incessant road blocks and police checks. Even little things like public toilets that were fit for use by human beings, water that was safe to drink from a tap, street signs that haven't been stolen and dustbins being emptied - all were cause for stares of amazement.

For three weeks my eyes were open wide and slowly it began to sink in just how utterly shocking everything in Zimbabwe has become. We have all been so busy trying to survive the horrors that not only have we forgotten how a country should work but also how to demand that officials paid with our taxes do our bidding and not their own.

Crossing the border back into Zimbabwe there were just three people in the queue. On the other side of the counter at least 60 Zimbabweans were jostling to get out of the country. I knew I was home within minutes of leaving the border post. Deep potholes litter the highways; cows, donkeys and goats have right of way and there are no roadside fences. Road markings have worn away, cat's eyes in the tar have gone and sign posts have been stolen.

But it was good to be home and the scenery this time of year is exquisite. Baobab trees in full leaf, crowds of yellow flowers in the dry bush and eagles soaring in the skies. The names of dry, dusty places conjure up images that can only be of Zimbabwe: Bubye, Nuanetsi, Sosonye, Mwenezi and Mount Guhudza. In the middle of nowhere there are always bottle stores: The "Try Again Bottle Store" caught my eye - a shabby little building, surrounded by red dust, women trying to sell water melons and men sitting drinking beer in the middle of the morning. This for sure is home!

Breaking the journey at one stage and in the middle of nowhere, two young teenage girls appeared. "Hello," I called out, "How are you?" "Hello," they answered, " we are eating!" One girl opened her hand to reveal a dozen shiny black berries. "Take them" she said, "you are welcome." I thanked her and took two. She told me they were called Subvu and I gave her some peppermints in exchange. We all clapped our hands in thanks and the girls went away giggling. Instantly I was overcome with emotion and patriotism. In a land where hunger is rampant, in a country with the lowest life expectancy in the world, two young girls would offer me a mouthful of their food. Where else could I be except at home and this is the Zimbabwe that everyone knows and loves. Later I found that the berries are from the Mutsubvu tree and also called Chocolate berries.

The grim reality of being back home came soon. On the bottom of the electricity bill waiting for me when I got home were the words: "Tariff increased by 350% effective 1 April ." I thank the two young girls on the roadside for making me feel welcome , and my mum for writing her letter 'from the diaspora' these past three weeks and keeping the news current.

Until next week, thanks for reading, love cathy

Copyright cathy buckle 28 April 2007http://africantears.netfirms.comMy books: "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are available from: orders@africabookcentre.com

THE FORGOTTEN REFUGEES OF EAST SUDAN !

The forgotten refugees of east Sudan.
By Karen Allen BBC News, eastern Sudan.

In eastern Sudan, some 20km from the border with Eritrea in an expanse of sand that stretches as far as the eye can see, is Wad Sharife camp.
It is home to some of the 130,000 refugees that have crammed into eastern Sudan over the decades.
Yet despite the raw beauty of the craggy Kassala Mountains that form a dramatic backdrop, this is possibly one of the loneliest places in the world.
What makes it even more tragic, is that many of the refugees who now call this part of the world "home," have languished here for more than 25 years, caught in a bureaucratic limbo and unable to work.
Many of the men, women and children have fled from regional conflicts in Eritrea and Ethiopia back in the 1980s.
A peace agreement in 2000 led to the repatriation of some 100,000 refugees but renewed clashes have meant that more than 8,000 asylum seekers fled to Sudan last year.
Many of them are young men trying to escape conscription into the Eritrean army, explaining that if they signed up, there is every chance they would be forced to serve indefinitely.
Bottom of the pile
The UN has now refined its policy, trying to integrate them into communities here. After all, many share the same ethnic identity. But it is a policy they are struggling to implement.
These refugees are hosted by a country emerging from more than two decades of a north-south civil war, and now wrapped up in a bitter conflict in Darfur. So they find themselves at the bottom of the pile.
Many have been waiting years for identification papers to confirm their status, allowing them to seek work, and they live in appalling conditions.

UN refugees commissioner Guterres has promised more aid. Visiting the camps at the end of his Sudanese tour, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres conceded the refugees had been "neglected" by the humanitarian community and pledged to address this urgently.
The hospitals in the camps are virtually bare and drugs are in short supply.
Medical assistant Ahmed Mohammed Ibrahim described how a lack of clean drinking water poses a huge health hazard.
"Because of the large population in the camp, there isn't enough water... so people go to the canal. And that creates problems - especially stomach problems."
Bleak prospects
One man who has endured these conditions for nearly 25 years is Haja Abdel Salam.
He is a tall proud man, dressed in white who as a peasant farmer fled from his native Eritrea during its bloody war with neighbouring Ethiopia.

Many refugees have been born in the camps. It was a choice of either becoming a refugee, he says, or facing execution.
The old man has fathered nine children since arriving at the camp back in the early 1980s, but no child has ever made it to college from this place, so his family's prospects look bleak.
"Even though there are difficulties in the camp we will not go back so long as there is injustice there, we will not go back, we are better off here," he said.
So who is to blame for these refugees' plight, or are they simply "victims of circumstance?"
Certainly the local Sudanese do not appear to object to their presence. What meagre facilities there are for the refugees are shared with the local community.
But the Sudanese authorities who run the camp and the UN refugee agency UNHCR who fund it, have overlooked these people's plight for many years - largely distracted by events in Darfur.
In a frank admission by Mr Guterres described the conditions he witnessed first-hand as "intolerable".
He has now pledged to channel more UN resources into eastern Sudan and draw the world's attention to the plight of the tens of thousands of "forgotten refugees".

BBC NEWS REPORT.

UGANDA RELENTS TO NORTHERN REBELS !

The LRA's Joseph Kony is wanted by the ICC for war crimes. Uganda's government says it has agreed to rebel concessions to kick start stalled peace talks to end the 20 year civil war in the north of the country.
But the power to drop international war crimes charges against the Lord's Resistance Army leadership is beyond its power, a spokesman told the BBC.
A northern MP says the warrants are a stumbling block to a final peace deal.
The negotiations have reopened in Juba, southern Sudan, three months after the rebel negotiators walked out.
The chief mediator for the talks, south Sudan's Vice-President Riek Machar says he is confident that things will be better this time.
"The leadership of the LRA recommitted his organisation to the peace process. The Ugandan government also committed itself for the peace talks so I think there is more optimism, there is seriousness in the current peace talks," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
Some 2m people have fled their homes and thousands of children have been abducted by the LRA during the civil conflict.
Accountability
The talks were officially reopened by former Mozambican President Joacim Chissano on Thursday morning.
Ugandan minister for international relations says that concessions were made to the rebels as a "process of confidence building".
"The government of Uganda has decided to relent or support the process by accepting any conditions by the LRA that will create a amicable and confident atmosphere to proceed to peace talks," Henry Okello Oryem told the BBC.
Some of the concessions include:
The expansion of the mediation team to include Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and Mozambique
Rebel fighters to gather at a single assembly point - Ri-Kwangba in south Sudan - by the end of June, instead of the two locations originally agreed
An allowance increase for the LRA negotiation team.
When the talks broke up in January both sides were on the brink of signing an agreement on the economic and social development of the north as well as the settlement of the region's thousands of displaced people.
The BBC's Sarah Grainger in Kampala says once these issues have been dealt with the difficult issue of reconciliation and accountability will be on the agenda.
LRA leader Joseph Kony and three of his top commanders are wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Jimmy Akena, Ugandan MP for Lira, who has attended the talks told the BBC's Swahili Service these arrest warrants were the main stumbling block to peace.
But Uganda government spokesman Major Felix Kulayigye says this issue is something that cannot be dealt with now.
"My suggestion to the LRA leadership is to get on with the peace talks which will allow their fighters to return home," he told the BBC.
"Once agreement has been reached it will be easy for both parties to go home and under our traditional ways could find ways of convincing the international community and ICC to drop the charges."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZIMBABWE INFLATION REACHES 2.200% !!!

Zimbabwe's once prosperous economy has been destroyed. Inflation in Zimbabwe reached a record 2,200% in March amid a deepening economic and political crisis in the southern African country.
Both food and non-food contributed to the year-on-year inflation rate, said central bank Governor Gideon Gono.
The March data had been due for release earlier this month but had been delayed, fanning fears of further crippling price rises.
Mr Gono said secured interest rates would rise to 600%, up from 500%.
He said the Zimbabwean currency would remain at the existing exchange rate of 250 to the US dollar but offered a new rate for central bank purchases of foreign currency to help build a new "drought stabilisation fund".
Exporters claim their businesses have been devastated by this skewed exchange rate.
Inflation hit 1,730% in February, the highest in the world.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

TOP ISLAMIST 'KILLED IN ALGERIA' !

A top-ranking member of an Algerian terrorist group has been killed in clashes with the army, officials said.
Samir Saioud, also known as Samir Moussaab, was killed in fighting in Si Mustapha, east of the capital Algiers, security sources told APS news agency.
Saioud was believed to be the number-two of an al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).
Saioud's body was identified by former members of his group, APS said.
His death has not yet been officially confirmed.
Car bombings
Earlier this month, the group claimed responsibility for a series of car bombings in the capital, Algiers, including one near the prime minister's office.
The blasts killed at least 23 people and injured more than 200.
Violent attacks have been increasing in Algeria since GSPC, the country's main Islamist rebel group, changed its name to the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb in January.
Despite an amnesty announced two years ago, violence in Algeria has not completely died down since its height in the mid-1990s.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

JANJAWEED STILL ROAM FREE IN DARFUR !

still roam free in Darfur
By Karen Allen BBC News, Chad-Sudan border.

Bleached by the sun and encrusted in sand, Kirinding camp, just outside El Geneina, is a bleak place, with straw fashioned into huts to offer shelter for the people here.

AU peacekeepers seem powerless to stop the Janjaweed.
It is home to some 30,000 people who have fled their homes in west Darfur.
The so-called sheikhs, the leadership of the camp, are remarkably frank when the UN's refugee chief, Antonio Guterres, comes to speak to them.
"The main security problem we are facing is that we are threatened by the Janjaweed [Arab militias]. Janjaweed keep us at home from 6 pm. to 6 am. We cannot leave our homes," says Jumar Zachira Omar.
He talks of the sound of gun fire ringing out after dark and of an African Union force that is too impotent to intervene. Seven AU peacekeepers have been killed in the past month alone and night patrols have been stopped.
Just an hour before, Mr Guterres had assurances from local dignitaries that 80% of west Darfur is safe.
Fragmentation
As we withdraw to find a place to sleep for the night, men on pickup trucks with mounted guns on the back speed past.

"These are the Janjaweed," our driver tells us. While they are confined to riding on camels, these government-backed Arab militias are roaming free.
AU commanders tell us they're "not being arrested" despite intimidating the local population.
This and the presence of rival rebel groups in what's become a more deadly and complex conflict means areas like Sirba, just north of El Geneina, are virtual no-go areas for AU troops.
Mr Guterres is urging all sides to re-engage in peace a year since the cobbled together agreement signed in Abuja that admitted key rebel groups was dismissed as an abject failure.
People need to learn again to live together as they've done for centuries
Antonio Guterres UN refugee chief
Now Darfur is seeing the consequences of that dash to achieve peace in the rampant insecurity and the growing fragmentation among Arab militias and rebel groups.
"The government and the different rebel groups must understand the need to make peace," says Mr Guterres.
"With peace comes disarmed militia, with peace comes the capacity to fight banditry - to fight all forms of conflict... People need to learn again to live together as they've done for centuries in a rebuilt Darfur."
Deeply intertwined
The influx of refugees from neighbouring Chad is only fuelling a humanitarian crisis which has already seen more than two million people flee from their homes.

5,000 Chadians have sought refuge at the Um Shalaya camp.
Sixty-five kilometres from the border, at Um Shalaya camp, west Darfur, 5,000 people from Chad have sought refuge, caught up in the same conflict which like a festering wound is spreading across the region.
A further 20,000 Chadians are clustered on the border, hoping that soon they'll return home.
A little boy at Un Shalaya camp, who can't be older than about six, has made a model of a pickup truck with a mounted gun on the back. One can only imagine what this little boy has seen.
His teacher, Izak Omar, puts it into words: "There are a lot of problems up at the border with Chad. On a daily basis people are being killed - sometimes one a day, two in the day, or sometimes it goes to 15 men in a day."
The Sudanese government and its Chadian neighbour accuse each other of backing rebel movements. Two countries whose histories are deeply intertwined are now entangled in conflict.
The government in Khartoum accused of fomenting violence and fuelling ethnic hatred is under pressure to allow better equipped UN peacekeepers in.
Last week it finally caved in to pressure to admit 3,000 UN peacekeepers, a sixth of the deployment diplomats say is needed to help bring the violence under control.
Ultimately it will be a political solution, not a military one that seals Darfur's fate.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

GERE FACES INDIAN ARREST WARRANT !

An Indian court has issued an arrest warrant for Hollywood actor Richard Gere after he kissed Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty in public.
Gere, 57, kissed Shetty, 31, several times on the cheek at an Aids awareness event in Delhi earlier this month.
The court in Jaipur in Rajasthan state called it "an obscene act", after a local lawyer filed a complaint.
It was not immediately clear how the warrant could affect Gere, who is a frequent visitor to India.
Shetty, who found fame outside India as the winner of Celebrity Big Brother in the UK, has also been asked to appear before the court.
Photographs of the clinch were splashed across front pages of newspapers in India.
Public displays of affection are still largely taboo in India, and protestors in Mumbai (Bombay) set fire to effigies of Gere following the incident.
Dance scene
Shetty has defended Gere saying that it was all done "in good humour".
"He especially told me to tell the media that he didn't want to hurt any Indian sensibilities," she said.
She said Gere had only been re-enacting a scene from his film Shall We Dance.
Under Indian law, a person convicted of public obscenity faces up to three months in prison, a fine or both.
Gere, star of films such as Chicago and Pretty Woman, is a Buddhist and travels to India frequently to visit the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in the north of the country.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

PREMIER CLAIMS SOMALI 'VICTORY' !

Hawiye clan fighters and Islamists are battling the government. Ethiopian and government troops are in control of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, after nine days of battles, the prime minister says.
Ali Mohamed Ghedi said the worst of the fighting against Islamists and clan gunmen was now over.
Columns of tanks were deployed and reinforcements sent to Mogadishu from other parts of Somalia.
Earlier, a BBC correspondent in the city said the battles were the heaviest in recent days, spreading to new areas.
United Nations humanitarian relief co-ordinator John Holmes has described the situation in Somalia as critical.

We have to bite the bullet -Ismail Mohamoud HurreSomali education minister.

Minister on fighting
Clan divisions behind violence

He said up to 400,000 people had fled Mogadishu but aid was reaching just 60,000. A doctor who runs one of Mogadishu's hospitals estimates that two-thirds of the city's one million residents had left.
Some 300 people have been killed in the recent clashes, after 1,000 deaths last month, local human rights group say.
Mogadishu residents say government forces have taken control of some northern suburbs from the insurgents.
"We hope to completely conclude the war tomorrow, and government forces will secure the capital," Mr Ghedi said.
But some correspondents in Mogadishu have questioned Mr Ghedi's assessment - they say there are still reports of heavy fighting, and artillery and machine-gun fire can be heard across the city.
'Hijacked'
Somali Education Minister Ismail Mohamoud Hurre said the deaths and violence were a price worth paying to return normality to the country, which has not had a functioning national government for 16 years. "The Ethiopian forces are doing very well, stopping the Jihadist elements from causing instability," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
"We have to bite the bullet."
But a UK think-tank has strongly criticised last December's operation to oust an Islamist group which had taken control of Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia.
"Genuine multilateral concern to support the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Somalia has been hijacked by unilateral actions of other international actors - especially Ethiopia and the United States - following their own foreign policy agendas," said the Chatham House report.
"Whatever the short-term future holds, the complex social forces behind the rise of the Islamic Courts will not go away," the authors said.
The Union of Islamic Courts controlled Mogadishu for six months last year - reuniting the capital for the first time since 1991.
The Islamist fighters have been joined by gunmen from the Hawiye clan, which does not back the government.
Donors and diplomats have accused the government of hindering the aid effort with bureaucratic obstacles.

Many of the casualties are civilians. The government says its checks on aid shipments are necessary to prevent insurgent attacks.
Somalia has not had a functional government since 1991.
Peace talks led to the formation of a transitional government in 2004, but it has so far failed to take full control of the country.
Ethiopian troops announced they had begun to withdraw, to be replaced by an African Union peacekeeping force, but only 1,200 of the 8,000 troops the AU says it needs have been deployed.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

U.S. PRISON CHIEF ARRESTED IN IRAQ !

US handling of Iraqi detainees has been controversial from the start. The commander of a major US military prison in Iraq has been arrested for offences including aiding the enemy.
Lt Col William Steele is accused of giving detainees free use of a mobile phone at Camp Cropper and fraternising with the daughter of a detainee.
It is the latest of several scandals involving US jails in Iraq, the worst being the 2003 Abu Ghraib abuse case.
Col Steele is also accused of improper behaviour with his Iraqi interpreter and holding unauthorised information.
There are four overall charges against Col Steele and nine specific alleged offences. He was arrested last month and is being detained in Kuwait, a US military spokeswoman said.

CHARGES AGAINST COL STEELE
Providing unmonitored mobile phone to detainees
Mishandling classified information
Fraternising with detainee's daughter
Inappropriate relationship with interpreter and providing her special privileges
Failing to obey a lawful order
Possessing pornographic videos
Failing obligations as approving authority for expenditure.
Others offences include dereliction in the performance of his duties, failing to obey an order and wrongfully possessing pornographic videos.

The alleged offences took place between October 2005 and February 2007, a US statement said. Col Steele was arrested in March.
"His current status is that he is in confinement and waiting for his Article 32 hearing," the spokeswoman said.
The hearing would conducted by a panel of military officers who are to decide whether the suspect should face charges.
Criticism
Camp Cropper, in the west of the Iraqi capital close to Baghdad International Airport, is believed to hold about 3,300 Iraqi prisoners.
It is the second largest US military jail in Iraq, the other being Camp Bucca, near Umm Qasr in the south of the country, which holds an estimated 15,000 detainees.
Executed former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein spent time there, including for medical treatment, although the US military says he was never under Col Steele's responsibility.
US detention facilities in Iraq have been the target of sustained criticism for holding detainees without charge and for widespread abuse of prisoners.
The worst controversy was in the first year of the US occupation of Iraq, when it was revealed that guards abused prisoners at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CHINA TORCH RELAY TO BE UNVEILED !

China wants the games to be its showcase to the world. The official route of the Olympic torch for the 2008 Beijing games is due to be revealed later on Thursday.
The flame will be carried to Beijing by a relay of athletes from the site of the ancient Olympics in Greece.
However, speculation about the route has thrown the spotlight on two politically sensitive issues.
Beijing is expected to announce the torch will be carried through Taiwan and Tibet - both of which have controversial ties with China.
The highlight of Beijing's planned relay is to take the torch to the summit of Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, straddling the border with Tibet and Nepal.
Four US activists were arrested on Everest on Wednesday after unfurling a banner calling for Tibet's independence as Chinese climbers were carrying out relay assessments.
They were still believed to be in detention on Thursday. China said it was investigating the incident and warned foreign citizens against engaging in "activities concerning the sovereignty and unity of China".
Compromise
While many in self-governed Taiwan are said to be keen to see the torch come to the island, there have reportedly been lengthy negotiations over the details of its delivery.
Some fear that if the torch enters and leaves via Beijing, it will appear to endorse China's view that Taiwan is part of its territory.
The Everest protest highlights some political concerns over the games
"That would undermine Taiwan as a sovereign country," Wang Shu-hui, a Taiwanese MP, said.
Correspondents say the likely compromise will be that the torch arrives in Taiwan from a different country, such as Japan or South Korea and leaves for Hong Kong.
As with previous Olympics, the flame will be lit in Athens several months before the games begins and carried by a series of athletes, celebrities and specially-chosen members of the public to Beijing.
The International Olympic Committee said on Thursday it had approved the route, which will be revealed by Chinese organisers later.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ETHIOPIA RESCUE ATTEMPT WARNING !

An Ethiopian separatist movement has warned the government that any attempt to rescue the seven Chinese civilians it is holding could put them in danger.
The Ethiopian government said it will send a mission to free the Chinese.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front attacked a Chinese oil installation in eastern Ethiopia on Tuesday in which nine Chinese and 65 Ethiopians died.
The ONLF said the seven were being well cared for and would be handed over to the Red Cross at the first opportunity.
It is "a very delicate operation, because Ogaden is a battle zone," said ONLF spokesman Abdirahman Mahdi.
China has strongly condemned the rebel attack against its interests.
The Ethiopian leader denounced the attack as "cold-blooded murder".
Ethiopia has accused neighbouring Eritrea of sponsoring the ONLF, an ethnic Somali rebel group.
We have warned the Chinese government and the Ethiopian government that... they don't have a right to drill there
ONLF's Abdirahman Mahdi
Eritrea has denied the accusation, saying Ethiopia is trying to trigger a war.
Beijing urged the government in Addis Ababa to ensure the safety of Chinese expatriates after the "atrocious" act.
It says the attack will not stop it from investing in Africa, but it plans to boost security measures.
The clashes took place at an oil field in Abole, a small town about 120km (75 miles) from the regional capital, Jijiga.
"It is an outrage," Ethiopian Prime Minster Meles Zenawi said at a news conference.
"I can assure you that those responsible for this act will pay in full for what they did."
Fire fight
The ONLF has been waging a low-level insurgency with the aim of breaking away from Ethiopia.

OGADEN NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT (ONLF)

Want Somali-speaking region to break away from Ethiopia
Founded in 1984
Has been accused of bomb attacks in Somali region and the capital, Addis Ababa
Fought major battles with Ethiopian government in 2006.

ONLF statement
Q&A: ONLF rebels

The ONLF has in the past made threats against foreign companies working with the Ethiopian government to exploit the region's natural resources.
A Chinese oil worker said about 200 gunmen attacked the field, where the Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau is searching for oil.
Gunmen briefly took control of the field after a 50-minute fire fight with soldiers protecting it, Xu Shuang, a manager for the oil group, said.
China has been working to increase its influence and investment in Africa in recent years as it looks to secure energy supplies for the future.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

MAUTITANIANS QUESTION THE 'FAT' LOOK !

Mauritanians question the 'fat' look
By Pascale Harter BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents.

As Mauritanian nomads drift to the city, modern life is beginning to challenge one of their most cherished traditions - the force-feeding of young girls.

Mauritanian women work hard to fatten up their daughtersUnder a patchwork tent in Kiffa, on the western edge of the Sahara desert, a nomadic woman called Braika crossed two sticks around my ankles and squeezed the ends together with rope until I yelped in pain.
She was showing me how she forced her daughters to swallow litres of milk and mountains of couscous for days on end until they developed wings of fat hanging from their arms and their skin was traced with silvery stretch-marks - attributes considered the height of feminine beauty in Mauritania.
"They eat and eat, and drink and drink, and when they can't eat anymore we pinch them and sometimes they vomit," Braika said.
"When they vomit on purpose, we make them eat the vomit to teach them not to do it again."
A thin girl will never find a husband -Braika.
Braika proudly wobbled her flabby arms and showed off her own stretch-marks.
She did not feel guilty about force-feeding her daughter.
She assured me that once the ordeal was over the girls were grateful, because nicely fattened up they could take their pick of husbands.
"A thin girl could be blown away in the wind, people think she is a stick and she will never find a husband," she said.
Nomads believe a fat girl is a healthy girl.
But in reality, obesity has reached epidemic proportions among Mauritanian women and it is killing them.
Barely into their 40s, fattened women are dying from obesity-related diseases such as diabetes and heart failure.
Government warnings

Mounina has worked to warn women of the dangers of obesity.
Mounina Mint Abdalla is a health consultant who worked for years with the government trying to stamp out force-feeding.
But she acknowledged that government radio sketches warning women of the dangers of obesity have had little effect on a society where fatness is revered as a symbol of nobility and good breeding.
Nonetheless, force-feeding and the nomadic way of life is fast disappearing, said Mounina.
"The country has been hit by years of drought and we simply don't have that kind of quantity of milk now, or the time it takes," she added.
Zeid, a nomad in the market town of Aleg, said he was thinking of trading his last remaining goats and camels for a passage to the city.
"We are in deep crisis," he said.
"The price of the food is becoming so high, that we can't afford to feed ourselves, and for this reason we cannot feed the animals.
"The only thing we can do is move to the city."

Women come to the market to buy steroids for their daughters. In the market in the capital Nouakchott, Mounina pointed to all the women working in the stalls selling everything from brightly coloured veils to fake Chanel sunglasses.
"Just 15 years ago, women didn't work at all but now all these women are working because life in the city is very expensive," she said.
But despite this, women are still finding ways of fattening themselves up.
A pill-seller said he could not count the number of women who buy steroids meant for cattle.
"Some come and buy 20 boxes in one go," he said.
But if force-feeding creates problems for women in later life, the cattle steroids can be an instant killer.
Side-effects include renal failure and heart attacks.
Dr Maagouiya, the general surgeon at Nouakchott's main hospital said that without autopsies - which are not permitted in Mauritania - he cannot be sure how many lives the steroids have claimed but he believes the figure is high.
They tell me that if they lose weight their husbands will leave them
Dr Maagouiya, general surgeon

Yet mothers still come to him to request pills for their daughters, believing that thin girls are shameful because they look "sick".
To be "sick" is often a euphemism for having HIV/Aids in Africa.
The message is getting through to some Mauritanian women, like Mounina's nieces who have started exercising around the stadium as the sun goes down.
But they seemed to be doing it reluctantly and said they were trying to lose weight purely for health reasons, not because it would make them more attractive.
Dr Mougiya said he encounters the same attitude when he holds seminars trying to persuade obese women to slim down.
"They tell me that if they lose weight their husbands will leave them because everyone knows that in Mauritania men prefer a fat woman."
Global influences
One thing is finally beginning to shake up popular attitudes to fatness - the explosion of Arab satellite channels obliterating the monopoly held until recently by the state channel.

Mounina's daughters are inspired by the slim stars of satellite television
It was a big moment in Mounina's house when I visited - it was the final of Star Academy, the talent music show by the Lebanese music channel LBC.
Mounina's teenage daughters told me they do not want to be fat like their cousins who are only a few years older then them.
They said they want to be "a normal size" like the Lebanese pop stars.
"Now Mauritanian men are looking at Lebanese singers and starting to compare them with us," said 19-year-old Aicha.
"They look at their wives and say 'why aren't you like those singers?' There are some who've got divorced because of those Lebanese singers.
"The men say to their wives 'why are you fat, why aren't you like Britney Spears?"
The lifestyle in Mauritania is changing fast - donkey carts and fruit stalls in Nouakchott are giving way to fast-food restaurants.
In "Burger Hot" I met a group of men who were not sure that Mauritania's love affair with thin men and fat women is completely over.
"If you're an overweight man, women make jokes about you. They say that you look like a woman.
"But if you tell them to lose weight they don't believe you.
"They say you are out of your mind, that you are trying to trick them because they know men here don't like thin ladies."
But another man said that no matter how many images of slimmer women are beamed into Mauritanian living rooms, former nomads are too set in their ways to ever fully accept a foreign standard of beauty.
BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents was broadcast on Thursday, 26 April 2007 at 1102 BST.
It will be repeated on Monday, 30 April 2007 at 2030 BST.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

AMPUTEE ATHLETE AIMS FOR OLYMPICS !

Amputee athlete aims for Olympics.
By Orla Guerin BBC Africa correspondent.

Pistorius made his international debut at the 2004 Paralympics. Three years ago Oscar Pistorius had never stepped onto a track, let alone run a race.
Today he is an athletics sensation - holder of world records in the 100m, 200m and 400m events.
His coach, Ampie Louw, says Oscar is "a natural champion - born that way".
The 20-year-old South African is one of a handful of runners around the globe who could make the Olympic qualifying time. He is less than a second away.
But Oscar's Olympic bid is like no other - he is a double amputee.
'Blade runner'
At birth he was missing bones below the knee.
After his legs were removed, at the age of one, he learnt to walk on prosthetics, and he believes this pushed him to excel.

Pistorius will compete at next month's Paralympic World Cup.
He has done everything from quad biking to water skiing. He took up athletics as rehabilitation for a rugby injury.
On the track, they call him "blade runner" - thanks to his carbon fibre prosthetics, custom-made in Iceland.
He and his blades, called Cheetahs, have run into sporting history, and into controversy.
He has been dogged by claims that the blades give him an extra long stride - something he denies.
The manufacturers, Ossur, say the blades are "passive devices", which lag way behind what biological legs can do.
They insist the Cheetahs are not performance-enhancing, but simply give amputee athletes a fighting chance.
Winning ingredient
Oscar says he is the winning ingredient, not the blades.

SPRINT COMPARISONS
400m times (in secs): 46.56 - Pistorius world record 47.8 - 1928 Olympic gold 44.00 - 2004 Olympic gold
200m times: 21.58 - Pistorius world record 22.0 - 1920 Olympic gold 19.79 - 2004 Olympic gold
100m times: 10.91 - Pistorius world record 11.2 - 1906 Olympic gold 9.85 - 2004 Olympic gold

He is outrunning single amputees using the Cheetahs.
"I train harder than any of the other guys do," he says. "I put in more hours. I eat better. I sleep better. I rest better and, overall, I am more diligent."
He has just shown what he can do against able-bodied athletes.
In South Africa's National Championships in Durban last month, he came in second.
"I don't see myself as disabled, and I think it's the guy that wants to win the hardest that's gets it," he explains.
Oscar's next challenge is the Visa Paralympic World Cup in Manchester next month, but he is looking ahead to Beijing in 2008.
Olympic hopes
One of Britain's sporting heroes, former world record holder Colin Jackson, says he should be given the chance.

There's never been a disabled athlete running in the Olympics - there's fear of change
Oscar Pistorius
"I think it's a great idea, if he makes it as the first paralympian," he told BBC News.
"He's one of these guys who is a genuine athlete. And he's young enough to not only make 2008, but to compete also in 2012, which would be really sensational."
But the world body governing athletics, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), has already moved to block him from the Olympics, with a new ruling banning "technical aids".
Senior officials have "suspicions" about his performance on the Cheetahs.
Oscar says his critics are only looking at the advantages of the blades - "if there are any" - and not the disadvantages.
"There's never been a disabled athlete running in the Olympics," he says.
"There's a fear of change."
Oscar believes some people just do not like the competition, but he says he will keep chasing his dream.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CHINA BOOM 'THREATENS MINORITIES' !

China boom 'threatens minorities'.
By Jill McGivering BBC News.

Many ethnic minorities are seeing their traditions eroded. Some of China's biggest minority groups are failing to benefit from China's rapid economic development, a new report has found.
The report also said greater contact with the rest of China is threatening indigenous cultures and languages.
The findings have been published by the Minority Rights Group International and Human Rights in China.
They assessed the situation of three main ethnic minority groups, the Uighurs, Mongols and Tibetans.
Not only are they becoming increasingly alienated, they are largely missing out on China's economic boom, the report said.
Where their regions are seeing development, the impact is often damaging.
'Inappropriate'
In many cases, the large-scale building of roads and railways is not boosting local economies, but just facilitating the extraction of raw materials - resources to feed growth in other parts of China.
In regions such as Xinjiang and Tibet, it says, the increased access is leading to a greater military presence - and a general diluting of local culture.
"You can adapt to the world and retain your language and culture, and speak a national language as well. You don't need just to speak one language," Clive Baldwin, of the Minority Rights Group International, said.
"But in China, the model that's being imposed at the moment is very much one of one state, one language, one culture and anyone against this is being seen as deviant, "splitist", and we'd say that is entirely inappropriate."
China's leaders are struggling at the moment to address the imbalances in the country's development.
They are well aware of the vast gap between the booming coastal provinces and the much less developed west of the country - and are eager to stifle discontent.
The authors of this report suggest that where minorities are concerned, the policies could be having the opposite effect - stoking feelings of resentment amongst communities who see their own culture and way of life coming under growing threat.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

JAPAN RAID ON PRO-PYONGYANG GROUP !

Families of Japan's missing have long called for answers. Japanese police have raided the offices of a pro-North Korean group in Tokyo in connection with the alleged kidnapping of two children in the 1970s.
Police moved in on two offices linked to the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, Chongryon, and the house of a 55-year-old woman.
They suspect the woman played a key role in the abduction of two children aged three and six in 1974.
North Korea has admitted abducting Japanese citizens in the 70s and 80s.
But it says that of the 13 people its agents seized, five have been released and eight are dead.
Tokyo has always suspected more citizens were kidnapped, and has refused full-scale economic assistance or the establishment of diplomatic ties with the North until the issue is resolved.
Angry scenes
The Japanese authorities said the raids were part of an investigation into the 1974 abduction of two children born to a Japanese woman and a Korean man.
Police sources said they suspected the 55-year-old woman of helping a North Korean agent - who left Japan in the late 70s - to kidnap the children, Kyodo news agency reports.

JAPAN'S MISSING

Snatched in the 70s and 80s
Used as cultural trainers for N Korean spies
Five allowed home in 2002
Five children now freed from N Korea
Eight said to be dead, others missing

Heartbreak over Japan's missing

Three top Chongryon officials are also wanted for questioning over the case, the sources said.
There were angry scenes as police moved in on one of the Chongryon offices, Kyodo news agency reports.
Chongryon staff and supporters clashed with police and one man was reportedly arrested for trying to block the search.
Chongryon described the raid as a "political crackdown" by the Japanese authorities ahead of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to the US.
Mr Abe, who has always taken a strong line on the issue of abductions, is expected to raise the issue when he meets US President George W Bush later this week.
The two children are not thought to be on the government list of Japanese citizens Tokyo believes were spirited away by the North to train its spies in Japanese language and culture.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

THAI MONKS RALLY ON RELIGION CALL !

Monks and elephants walked in searing heat to the parliament. Hundreds of Thai monks have led nine elephants in a march on parliament calling for Buddhism to be enshrined as the country's official religion.
They were joined by more than 1,000 supporters who also want Buddhism to be declared the national religion in the new post-coup constitution.
The leaders behind last September's coup have indicated they may be willing to bow to the monks' demands.
Critics fear it could inflame tensions in the Muslim-majority deep south.
In the south a three-year Islamic insurgency - in a country where 95% of the population are Buddhist - has killed more than 2,000 people.
Constitution 'review'
Correspondents described a colourful procession as monks dressed in saffron-robes walked alongside the nine elephants 30km (18 miles) from Bangkok's western suburbs to parliament.
Police had asked the protesters not to bring the elephants for fear the scorching heat would make them difficult to control, but they relented as the march continued into the city.
"Our only demand is to have the clause 'Buddhism is Thailand's national religion' included in the new constitution. It's the opinion of the majority of Thais," protest spokesman Tongkhao Phuangrodpang told the AFP news agency.
Coup leader and army commander General Sonthi Boonyaratglin said he expected the committee drafting the constitution to "review its decision on this issue".
"If a stipulation in the charter to this effect leads to peace in the country, then it is better that it is included," he was quoted by the Bangkok Post as saying.
"Those who say there is no need for such a stipulation don't take the issue that seriously."
He recommended adding a clause, saying the government will "take care of other religions, including Christianity and Islam".
A draft of the new constitution, released last week, keeps the same wording as previous constitutions - that the state will protect all faiths, with no mention of Buddhism as the national religion.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

U.S. TROOPS DIE IN NEW IRAQ ATTACK !

The attack is the heaviest US ground loss for more than a year. Nine US soldiers have been killed in a suicide bomb attack on a base north of Baghdad, military officials have said.
Some 20 troops and an Iraqi civilian were injured in the attack, which happened in the volatile province of Diyala, to the north-east of Baghdad.
There has been fierce fighting in Diyala recently, pitting US and Iraqi forces against Sunni and Shia militias.
It is thought to be the worst single US loss on the ground since late 2005, when 10 marines died near Falluja.
In January 2007, 12 US soldiers died when a Black Hawk military helicopter crashed near Baghdad.
More than 3,300 US troops have been killed and some 24,300 have been injured in Iraq since the conflict began.
In Baghdad, meanwhile, two car bombs exploded on Tuesday morning near the Iranian embassy, police and witnesses said. At least four people were reported hurt in the blasts.
Two blasts in the same area on Monday left one person dead.
Rare attack
In a brief statement released early on Tuesday, the US military said a suicide car bomber attacked a patrol base near Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province, on Monday.

MAJOR US LOSSES IN IRAQ
2 Nov 03: Chinook helicopter downed near Falluja, killing 16
15 Nov 03: Two Black Hawk helicopters collide avoiding ground fire in Mosul, killing 17
21 Dec 04: Suicide bomb at military base in Mosul kills 19
26 Jan 05: CH-53E helicopter crashes in West Iraq, killing 31
3 Aug 05: Roadside blast near Haditha kills 14 marines
1 Dec 05: Ten marines killed by roadside bomb near Falluja
20 Jan 07: Black Hawk crashes near Tal Afar, killing 12
24 Apr 07: Suicide bombing of base near Baqouba kills nine

Fifteen of the wounded soldiers were later able to return to work, the statement said.
American troops in the province come under frequent mortar and small arms attack, but a frontal assault like this on a base is rare, says the BBC's Andrew North in Baghdad.
Most are now too well defended for suicide attackers to get close. But the base that was attacked is a smaller installation and so may have been more vulnerable, our correspondent adds.
The US military also announced the death on Monday of another soldier in a separate roadside bombing in Diyala.
'Critical months'
The suicide bombing at the US base came at the end of a day of attacks across Iraq that left more than 40 people dead.

Car blasts in the town of Ramadi killed 20 people and injured many more. Three car bombs exploded in quick succession near a restaurant and market in Ramadi's western district of al-Taamim.
Earlier in the day, at least 20 people died in separate car bombings in Baqouba and Mosul.
Another attack took place on the edge of Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, close to where the new US envoy, Ryan Crocker, was giving his first briefing in Baghdad.
In a news conference, Ambassador Crocker said the next few months would be critical in the effort to reconcile Iraq's warring communities and urged the government to make use of a US-led security plan in the capital.
It is in no-one's intention that this (the wall) is going to be a permanent state of affairs
Ryan Crocker

Profile: Ryan Crocker
Iraq violence, in figures

He also defended the thinking behind a controversial wall being built around the flashpoint Adhamiya area, a Sunni enclave on the mainly Shia east bank of the Tigris.
On Sunday Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said he had ordered a halt to the project after it drew strong criticism from residents and Sunni leaders.
The latest US deaths also came as Democratic Party lawmakers in the US Congress agreed to merge House and Senate versions of a spending bill for Iraq, which include a timeline for the withdrawal of US troops.
The bill calls for a withdrawal to start no later than 1 October 2007, with a non-binding deadline of 31 March for a total pullout.
On Tuesday, US President George W Bush repeated his promise to veto the bill.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

REPORTING RISKS LEAVE GAZA NEGLECTED !

Reporting risks leave Gaza neglected
By Martin Patience BBC News, Erez Crossing.

Palestinian journalists have called for security to be improved in Gaza. About a hundred foreign journalists gathered at the Erez crossing - the gateway from Israel to Gaza - to show solidarity with the kidnapped BBC correspondent, Alan Johnston.
Holding placards and pictures of the kidnapped correspondent, the journalists rallied in a dusty car park in front of the crossing's new, gleaming terminal building.
"Alan is the only foreign correspondent living full time in the Gaza Strip," said the chairman of the Foreign Press Association, Simon McGregor-Wood.
"In doing so for three years he showed his personal commitment and that of the BBC to report the story of Gaza and its people in a fair and balanced way," he added.
The BBC's deputy head of Newsgathering, Jonathan Baker, also on the Israeli side of Erez crossing, said he was making a direct plea to those who are holding Mr Johnston to release him immediately.
"His only offence has been to expose himself to personal danger because of his strong desire to bring the story of Gaza to the outside world," he said.
Commitment
Four hundred metres away - through the labyrinth of tunnels, turnstiles and X-ray machines that separate Israel from the Gaza Strip - a group of 40 Palestinian journalists marched up to the crossing.
"Free Alan, Free Alan," they chanted, kicking up the dust on the road as they walked.
He was incredibly plugged to all that was happening in the territory and would always be willing to help you out
Donald MacintyreForeign correspondent
Back on the Israeli side, Donald Macintyre, a foreign journalist who knows Alan Johnston well, praised him for his journalistic commitment.
"You'd see him in the Al-Deera [a hotel in Gaza] and he would always cheer you up," the correspondent for the Independent newspaper said.
"He had always discovered a bizarre aspect about life in Gaza that made you laugh.
"He was incredibly plugged into all that was happening in the territory and would always be willing to help you out."
Since Alan Johnston's kidnapping, very few foreign journalists have ventured into the territory.
'Trust is gone'
The Foreign Press Association recently issued a statement saying Gaza had become a "no-go zone" for its several hundred members.

Most of the foreign journalists that have entered the territory in recent weeks have been accompanied by security forces provided by the Palestinian president's office.
But many foreign journalists covering Palestinian issues are nervous about returning to the Gaza Strip, which they once visited freely.
"I'd be very slow to go back to Gaza," said Ed O'Loughlin, a correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
"Up until now there has always been the assumption that there will be protection from the Palestinian authority or from Arabic and Islamic customs on treating guests. Now that trust is gone."
"But if the story was worth it, I'd go back. The days, however, of routine visits are over."
Instead, international organisations have been relying almost entirely on their local staff to gather information for reports.
Many Palestinian journalists are also concerned by the increasing risk and have been calling on the Palestinian Authority to vastly improve the law and order situation in the territory.
In terms of news, they also fear that Gaza could be neglected by the wider world.
"It only serves to limit the coverage in the Gaza Strip, if foreign journalists stop going," said Walid Batrawi, a Palestinian correspondent for the Arabic satellite TV station, Al-Jazeera.
"The human stories of the people of Gaza will not be told."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

NIGERIA OPPOSITION PLAN PROTESTS !

Gen Muhammadu Buhari won 18% of Saturday's vote. Nigeria's opposition parties are meeting to agree on a common strategy to fight the outcome of last Saturday's flawed presidential elections.
Major opposition candidates Atiku Abubakar and Muhammadu Buhari rejected the results and called for protests.
They have also urged parliament to annul the polls and call for a re-run.
But the powerful Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria has advised against any mass protests, saying it is best to head for the law courts.
Two evils never make a right
Archbishop Alaba George
Many local and international observers say the election which was won by the governing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was flawed.
But the BBC's Senan Murray in Abuja says that having failed to present a common front during the poll, it is not clear how the opposition can now challenge its outcome in a unified way.
'Wrong'
Although the bishops say Nigerians' votes had been "abused, traumatised and brutalised", they also say the answer does not lie in violent protests.

Monitors slam poll "charade"
A monitor's election experience

"Two evils never make a right. To cause chaos; to cause people to lose their lives and property is definitely wrong," Archbishop Alaba George told the BBC.
Fearing a possible outbreak of violence in the volatile Kaduna State, a ban on street demonstrations has just been announced in the north-western state.
But further north in the conservative Muslim-dominated Kano State, some women heeded opposition calls and took to the streets to protest the outcome of last Saturday's parliamentary poll.
In addition to his election troubles, Nigeria's Code of Conduct Tribunal is expected to decide whether it could try Mr Abubakar for graft despite his constitutional immunity against criminal prosecution.
Mr Yar'Adua gained 24.6m votes, against 6.6m for his closest challenger, Mr Buhari and 2.6m for vice-president turned opposition candidate Mr Abubakar.
Outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo has defended the organisation of the vote.
"No elections in the world will ever be regarded as perfect... You cannot use European standards to judge the situation in a developing country," he told the BBC.
The presidential poll was held alongside elections for the National Assembly and Senate.
Nigeria - one of the world's biggest oil producers - is of key strategic interest to both the West and the growing economies of the East.
But despite the country's huge oil wealth, much of the population lives on less than $1 a day.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

HAMAS FIGHTERS END ISRAEL TRUCE !

This is the first time Hamas has fired rockets into Israel in five months. The armed wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement has said it is ending its five-month truce with Israel.
Earlier in the day the group launched a sustained barrage of rockets and mortars into Israel, the first such attack since November.
The group, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said the attacks were in revenge for recent killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces.
The ending of the truce has not been confirmed by Hamas political leaders.
The Palestinian prime minister, Hamas's Ismail Haniya, whilst not confirming that the ceasefire was over, said the Palestinians had tried hard to observe the truce, but this had been undermined by what he called Israeli aggression.
No casualties
An Israeli spokesman said only a small number of rockets landed in Israeli. There were no reports of casualties.
The attacks came as Israel celebrated the 59th anniversary of its establishment as a modern independent state.
There is no truce between us and the occupation, the occupation destroyed the truce from the moment it started, we did not trust the intentions of the occupation from the beginning
Izzedine al-Qassam statement
Hamas's military wing said the attack, of nearly 100 rockets and mortars, was a response to the killing of nine Palestinians, five of them believed to be militants, during Israeli military operations in the West Bank.
Israel helicopter gunships fired machine guns near the border fence in southern Gaza soon after the rocket fire, Palestinian witnesses reported.
Hamas, which won parliamentary elections last year and is the leading faction in the Palestinian Authority, agreed to a ceasefire in November.
But it reserved the right to respond to the killing of Palestinians by Israeli forces.
'Illusion'
A spokesman for the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades told the BBC that the idea of a truce had become an illusion.
A spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, Abu Ubeida, said: "There is no truce between us and the occupation, the occupation destroyed the truce from the moment it started, we did not trust the intentions of the occupation from the beginning."
The truce had been largely observed since November, despite some violations on both sides.
BBC Middle East correspondent Katya Adler says there has been tension within Hamas over how far the ceasefire should hold.
An Israeli government official said there have been rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel at least every two days.
There is speculation in Israel that it might taken more concerted military action into Gaza.
Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, said: "Israel is not interested in escalation, but we hope that cooler heads among the Palestinians prevail. We however reserve the right to protect and defend our civilians."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

INSIDE TOKYO'S HOSTESS CLUBS !

Inside Tokyo's hostess clubs
By Chris Hogg BBC News, Tokyo.

A Japanese businessman has been acquitted of raping and killing British bar hostess Lucie Blackman in 2000. But he was convicted of killing an Australian hostess, Carita Ridgway. Carita and Lucie were among thousands of foreign women who have been lured to work in one of Japan's hostess clubs.
A woman working as a hostess in a Japanese bar has to concentrate on just one task, keeping the customer happy.
Happy customers stay longer. They drink more of the bars' expensive drinks.
That means more commissions for the hostess and more profits for the bar.
There are thousands of hostess bars in Tokyo. Club Lounge Monina is one of the more respectable establishments.
Paid to entertain
The foreign women working there told me they were not prostitutes but entertainers - but they were not keen to give their real names for fear of what their friends and families back home might think of them.
'Karen', who is from the Philippines, said: "Our job is just to talk to people who come in to drink, to sing along with them on the karaoke machine, to make them laugh and to try to listen to them."

Lucie Blackman was killed while working as a hostess.
She works five nights a week from Monday to Friday at the club. She says she earns 2,500 yen (£10) an hour.
But that is just the beginning. Hostess bars have complicated systems of rewards and bonuses.
"We get tips as well as the commissions for the drinks and if we invite customers to the bar we get money for that too," said Karen.
Hostesses can also go on dinner dates with customers, known as dohan. They get their dinner paid for and then bring the customer to the club.
The night we were at Club Lounge Monina one of the customers was giving out gifts to a couple of the women he was sitting with.
The women who work there insisted they did not offer any sexual services to the customers.
Maybe some girls work as prostitutes, I don't know what goes on in other places, but not here
'Vivienne'
'Vivienne', who is from Brazil, said she was worried before she started but she said: "I was so tired of working in a convenience store. I thought to myself, I will give it a try. That was two-and-a-half years ago. I'm still here, I think it is OK.
"Maybe some girls work as prostitutes, I don't know what goes on in other places, but not here."
The bar we visited is owned and run by Monina.
At 34, she is unusually young to be a hostess boss or mama-san.
"The best hostesses are good looking for sure, but then it also depends on how they attract customers. It's not easy if you're not smart," she said.
Stricter controls
Currently most of the women she employs are from Asia.
"I used to have many girls, from Cameroon, Senegal, Europeans, Americans, every country but the government's become much stricter and also the economy's not so good. Before it was easier to give higher wages, but now it's not," she said.
The authorities do seem to be tightening up the immigration rules. In the past many women worked in the entertainment districts illegally on tourist visas.
That is not so easy these days.
The immigration department says it has introduced more rigorous checks on young women arriving from certain countries where they suspect significant numbers of illegal workers are coming from.
Since 2005 new measures to combat human trafficking have also been introduced.
Responsibility
Monina said there was only so much a mama-san can do to ensure the safety of the girls who work for her.
"It's really the girl's responsibility. There are certain rules that you teach the girls, how to tell who is a good, who is a bad customer for instance, but you cannot control what they do out of hours. After the club closes it's up to them to decide how far they want to go with the customer," she said.
Hostess bars are part of the mainstream of Japanese culture. Business deals are done there and clients entertained. Wives know they are part of life for "salarymen".

After the club closes it's up to them to decide how far they want to go with the customer -Monina
But when you sit there and watch the young women cuddling up to the older customers, or so drunk they can barely keep standing to finish their song on the karaoke machine, you wonder whether it really is that innocent.
Of course there are establishments far more sleazy than the one we visited.
As Japanese journalist Kentaro Katayama points out, if a salaryman is looking for sex a hostess club is not necessarily the best place to find it.
He said: "If you really want to have sex with somebody it's much easier to go to a prostitute.
"Going to a hostess club would cost you more than meeting a prostitute in Tokyo. It is very expensive, and yet still people like to go."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

SYRIA JAILS HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST !

Bunni is one of Syria's best known opposition activists. A Syrian human rights activist has been jailed for five years for spreading hostile information and joining an illegal political group, lawyers say.
Anwar al-Bunni, a prominent advocate for democratic reform in Syria, has been in detention since May 2006.
Correspondents say the heavy sentence sends a strong warning to the opposition and shows Syria has turned its back on Western pressure to reform.
Bunni was also ordered to pay a fine of about £1,000 ($2,000).
The court convicted him of spreading false or exaggerated news that could weaken national morale, affiliating with an unlicensed political association with an international nature, discrediting state institutions and contacting a foreign country, his lawyer Khalil Matouk said.
Bunni told the court he was proud of what he was doing.
"I didn't commit any crime. This sentence is to shut me up and to stop the effort to expose human rights violations in Syria," he said, according to Reuters.
There has been no confirmation of the sentence from the Syrian authorities, who usually do not comment on trials related to political or national security issues.
'Flagrant violation'
Bunni was arrested after signing an appeal for radical reform in relations between Syria and Lebanon in May 2006.
The Beirut-Damascus Declaration, calling on Syria to recognise Lebanon as a fully independent country, was signed by nearly 300 Syrian and Lebanese intellectuals.
Two prominent fellow signatories, Michel Kilo and Mahmoud Issa, have also been charged over the same petition.
Mr Matouk, said he would appeal against Bunni's conviction within 30 days.
He called the trial politically motivated and "a flagrant violation of freedom of opinion and expression and an attempt to intimidate Syrian society".
Crackdown
Bunni, 48, sometimes defended members of his family in court, many of whom are political dissidents. His two brothers have already spent 30 years in jail between them.
He had used EU funding to start a human rights training centre in Syria.
In the past two years the authorities have stepped up their crackdown on dissidents, and international human rights organisations say the situation is deteriorating, says the BBC's Kim Ghattas in Beirut.
The conviction was announced as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was in Damascus for tough talks with President Bashar al-Assad on two Lebanese issues.
Mr Ban wants Syria to support an international court to try the suspected killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and to prevent arms smuggling to the Hezbollah militant group.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

MEXICO CITY TO VOTE ON ABORTION !

Polls indicate Mexicans are split on the abortion issue. Mexico City's legislative assembly is to vote on whether to legalise abortion in the city, the capital of the world's second-largest Roman Catholic country.
If passed as expected, abortions would be limited to pregnancies in the first trimester, only in Mexico City.
Mexico City currently allows abortion in cases of rape, if the woman's life is at risk or if there are signs of severe defects in the foetus.
Catholic bishops in Mexico have spoken out against the proposed law.
Mexico City's legislature is dominated by the leftist PRD, the party of the mayor, Marcelo Ebrard.
He has ordered riot police to deploy around the assembly's buildings after abortion opponents promised big protests if the law is passed.
Court challenge
Opinion polls in Mexico, which is 90% Catholic, indicate people are evenly split on the issue.
The assembly has courted controversy in Mexico before, recently allowing same-sex civil unions. It is currently considering legalising euthanasia.
Opponents of the abortion law have promised to challenge it in the courts if it is passed.
The authors of the draft law argue that at least 1,500 women have died in Mexico over the last decade as a result of illegal abortions performed in unhygienic backstreet clinics.
Many victims of rape are denied access to legal abortion, Human Rights Watch said in a report last year.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CHINA GAS EMISSIONS 'MAY PASS U.S.' !

China acknowledges it faces climate change problems. China could overtake the US this year as the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, a leading international energy group has said.
The International Energy Agency had predicted China's carbon dioxide emissions would pass the US by 2010.
But IEA chief economist Fatih Birol said the rate of China's economic growth this year defied expectations.
His comments come days after a Chinese government report warned of the impact of climate change on the country.
The report, compiled by several government bodies, said that higher temperatures would lead to worsening droughts, spreading deserts and reduced water supplies.
But it stopped short of recommending cuts in greenhouse gas output and risking the country's economic growth.
Coal reliance
Mr Birol, of the Paris-based IEA, which advises governments on energy policy, said: "China's economic growth and use of coal production over the last few months has surprised us all.
"If they continue to surprise us in terms of very high economic growth and corresponding coal production, China will overtake the US much earlier than 2009 - more like this year or the next."
Though that gap could widen considerably in the coming years, he said per capita emissions from China still remained well below those of the US and other developed countries.
But he warned that both China and India - another fast-developing nation - needed to be involved in global efforts to tackle greenhouse gas emissions, otherwise there would be "no chance the climate change fight can be won".
He also said slowing China's growth was not the answer to curbing high greenhouse gas emissions - rather it needed a change of approach to energy production.
"China is a developing country and it needs growth," he said. "The question is what kind of energy and policies will be used in order to get that high level of economic growth.
"If they were to use much more sustainable policies and energy efficiency it would be good both for China's economy and for the climate change issue."
China is heavily reliant on highly polluting coal for its energy, and mines far more coal than any other country.
While the Chinese government has pledged to try to develop alternative energy sources, it says wealthy nations are the most to blame for high gas emissions.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CALL FOR NIGERIA STREET PROTESTS !

Saturday's election was "a charade" said EU observers. Nigerians must resist the "wholescale fraud" of Saturday's presidential elections, an opposition alliance says.
"We have seen revolutions around the world, from Ukraine to the Philippines. We must replicate that," Pat Utomi told the BBC, on behalf of 25 parties.
Outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo has admitted the polls were flawed but says they should not be re-run.
Ruling party candidate Umaru Yar'Adua won by a landslide, according to official results.
Police were on high alert as the results were announced in the capital, Abuja.
Thousands of opposition supporters protested in the streets of the biggest northern city, Kano, but they were soon dispersed by police firing tear gas.
There are no reports of any protests on Tuesday.
Mr Utomi stressed that the protests should be peaceful and within the law.
'No legal challenge'
European Union observers say the elections were a "charade" and any administration that resulted would not have any legitimacy.
One Nigerian newspaper on Tuesday said their country had become a laughing stock.
"This is not the kind of Nigeria we dreamed of," said the independent daily, The Nation. The EU says at least 200 people have died since campaigning began.

UMARU YAR'ADUA
Northern Muslim, from Katsina State
Little known until named PDP candidate last year
Set to be Nigeria's first university educated leader
Profile: Umaru Yar'Adua

A monitor's election experience

Opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari has told the BBC that he did not think Mr Yar'Adua would be sworn in as scheduled on 29 May but he did not give details of how this would be prevented.
"You have to be patient and see whether it will happen on the 29th of next month. But I very much doubt it," he said.
This should be the first time Africa's most populous nation replaces one elected civilian head with another.
Mr Buhari has, however, reportedly ruled out a legal challenge.
It took more than two years for his case, disputing the official results of the 2003 elections, to be finally rejected in court.
Mr Yar'Adua gained 24.6m votes, against 6.6m for his closest challenger, Muhammadu Buhari and 2.6m for vice-president turned opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar.
'Thugs'
Mr Obasanjo defended the organisation of the vote.
"No elections in the world will ever be regarded as perfect... You cannot use European standards to judge the situation in a developing country," he told the BBC.

Monitors slam poll "charade"

Press unease over polls

Nigeria's biggest election monitoring group has said the presidential poll was so flawed that it should be scrapped and held again.
"In many parts of the country elections did not start on time or did not start at all," said Transition Monitoring Group chief Innocent Chukwuma.
Turnout was approximately 58%.
The US says it is "deeply troubled" by the weekend polls which it said were "flawed". A spokesman at the State Department said Washington hoped the political parties would resolve any differences over the election through peaceful, constitutional means.
Voter Donaman Atezan, 25, told the BBC News website that election material was delivered late to his polling station in the central Benue State, after most people had gone home.
"Thugs were then left alone to vote and each one of them voted for the PDP over and over as many times as the ballot papers were available," he said.
He said he tried to vote for an opposition candidate but the ballot paper was ripped from his hand.
Officials had struggled to deliver some of the 60m ballot papers to stations in time for the vote. They only arrived in the country on Friday evening.
The presidential poll was running alongside elections for the National Assembly and Senate.
Nigeria - one of the world's biggest oil producers - is of key strategic interest to both the West and the growing economies of the East.
But despite the country's huge oil wealth, tens of millions live in poverty.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

ETHIOPIA ATTACK 'LEAVES 74 DEAD' !

Unidentified gunmen have killed at least 74 people in an attack on an oil field in Ethiopia's remote Ogaden region, officials say.
Nine Chinese oil workers and 65 Ethiopians were killed in the incident early on Tuesday, Chinese and Ethiopian officials said.
The attack took place at an oil field in Abole, a small town about 120km from the state capital, Jijiga.
A Chinese oil worker said about 200 gunmen attacked the field.
Xu Shuang, acting manager of the Chinese company involved, said another seven Chinese workers had been abducted.
The numbers of dead were confirmed by a spokesman for Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
"It is a cold blood killing, a massacre. It is a terrorist act," the spokesman, Berekat Simon, told AFP news agency.
Fire fight
The workers were employed by the Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, part of China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, China's Xinhua news agency reported.
Gunmen briefly took control of the field after a 50-minute fire fight with soldiers protecting it, Mr Xu told the agency.
In recent years, China has been working to increase its influence and investment in Africa as it looks to secure energy supplies for the future.
No group has yet said it carried out the attack but the area is known for its often violent clan politics, the BBC's Amber Henshaw reports from Addis Ababa.
A separatist group - the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) - has in the past made threats against foreign companies working with the Ethiopian government to exploit the region's natural resources.
The ONLF has been waging a low-level insurgency with the aim of breaking away from Ethiopia.
The incident will also step up tensions in the region which borders Somalia - where there are often clashes between Ethiopian troops and Islamists, our correspondent adds.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ANGER AT IRAN DRESS RESTRICTIONS !

Anger at Iran dress restrictions.
By Frances Harrison BBC News, Tehran

The crackdown is more serious than in past years. Two thousand young men in Iran have protested against new clothing curbs, reports say, amid growing discontent about a crackdown on un-Islamic dress.
Shiraz university students were angry about new rules banning sleeveless T-shirts, even inside all-male dorms.
The protest came as the judiciary head warned police that an excessively ferocious campaign could backfire.
Police say they stopped more than 1,300 women for dressing immodestly on the first day of the campaign in Tehran.
More than 100 women were arrested on Saturday; half of them had to sign statements promising to improve their clothing, the other half are being referred to court.
The focus of the new campaign is to stop women wearing tight overcoats that reveal the shape of their bodies or showing too much hair from beneath their headscarves.
However, young men have also been arrested for sporting wild hair styles or T-shirts considered immodest.
Local news agency reports say the protesting Shiraz students on Sunday night were calling for the resignation of the university chancellor.
Serious crackdown
There is always a crackdown at the start of summer as women start wearing more skimpy clothes because of the hot weather.

Women are banned from wearing short, figure-hugging outfitsIn past years the pressure quickly relaxed - headscarves become perched on the back of heads, while fashionable women in affluent north Tehran wear open-toed sandals, three-quarter length trousers and short skin-hugging overcoats.
The police complain that some young women strut the streets looking like fashion models - and it is not a bad description.
But this year the crackdown seems more serious.
Iranian television has broadcast nightly programmes warning women and young men with sleeveless T-shirts and spiky hair to be more careful about their dress.
The newspapers are full of pictures of women being arrested for their un-Islamic clothing, but foreign journalists have been prevented from filming it.
Backlash
The head of the Iranian judiciary, Ayatollah Shahrudi, has warned that a severe crackdown on un-Islamic dress could have the reverse effect.
Meanwhile, an MP has asked why the police should spend so much time arresting young people and filing court cases against them instead of fighting drug addiction and poverty.
Already taxi drivers say there are fewer women on the streets and it is clear most are dressing more conservatively.
It is not just the young and very fashionable who are being harassed this year, middle aged women and even foreign tourists are being cautioned.
One foreign journalist was stopped and the police complained the photograph in her press card was indecent, even though it was taken by the Ministry of Islamic Guidance.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

HUGE WIN FOR NIGERIA'S YAR'ADUA !

Security was tight as the results were announced. Nigeria's ruling party candidate Umaru Yar'Adua has won controversial presidential elections by a landslide, according to official results.
He gained 70% of the vote but European Union observers say the elections were a "charade" and any administration that resulted would not have any legitimacy.
The EU says at least 200 people have died in poll violence in the past week.
The two main opposition candidates have told their supporters to reject the results and want a re-run.
Mr Yar'Adua gained 24.6m votes, against 6.6m for his closest challenger, Muhammadu Buhari.
Vice-president turned opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar came third with 2.6m votes.
UMARU YAR'ADUA

Northern Muslim, from Katsina State
Little known until named PDP candidate last year
Set to be Nigeria's first university educated leader

Profile: Umaru Yar'Adua
Monitors slam poll "charade"

Both men accuse the governing People's Democratic Party (PDP) of rigging the elections.
This should be the first time Africa's most populous nation replaces one elected civilian head with another.
"I felt greatly humbled by the events of today and this mandate," Mr Yar'Adua, 56, told state television.
Mr Buhari had earlier threatened to call his supporters onto the streets if Mr Yar'Adua was declared the winner and there was tight security outside the election commission headquarters in the capital, Abuja.
Independent National Election Commission (Inec) head Maurice Iwu refused to take any questions from the large crowd of journalists waiting for the results. He only read out the results.
'Deeply troubled'
Shortly before the announcement was made, outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo made a surprise televised address to the nation.

Press unease over polls

He admitted that the poll had not been perfect but said the next elections would be better.
"It is my fervent wish that Nigerians will consider this experience as a necessary step in our journey as a people towards consolidating our democracy," he said.
Nigeria's biggest election monitoring group said the presidential poll was so flawed that it should be scrapped and held again.
"In many parts of the country elections did not start on time or did not start at all," said Transition Monitoring Group chief Innocent Chukwuma.
The US says it is "deeply troubled" by the weekend polls which it said were "flawed".
A spokesman at the State Department said Washington hoped the political parties would resolve any differences over the election through peaceful, constitutional means.
Voter Donaman Atezan, 25, told the BBC News website that election material was delivered late to his polling station in the central Benue Sate, after most people had gone home.
"Thugs were then left alone to vote and each one of them voted for the PDP over and over as many times as the ballot papers were available," he said.
He said he tried to vote for an opposition candidate but the ballot paper was ripped from his hand.
Petrol tanker
Officials had struggled to deliver some of the 60m ballot papers to stations in time for the vote. They only arrived in the country on Friday evening.

[It is] a necessary step in our journey as a people towards consolidating our democracy
Outgoing President Obasanjo

Obasanjo on the polls

The boldest of several attempts to disrupt polling was in the hours before voting was due to start when a petrol tanker laden with gas cylinders was used in an attack on the electoral commission's headquarters in Abuja.
The attackers tried to roll the unmanned tanker into the building, but the vehicle missed its target and came to a halt.
The presidential poll was running alongside elections for the National Assembly and Senate.
The new government is scheduled to take power on 29 May.
Nigeria - one of the world's biggest oil producers - is of key strategic interest to both the West and the growing economies of the East.
But despite the country's huge oil wealth, tens of millions live in poverty.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

FAMILY'S NIGHTMARE ESCAPE FROM MOGADISHU !

Somali Khadra Mohammed, who is the BBC's Swahili reporter in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, tells how she managed to flee the intense fighting with her five children across the border to Kenya.

Khadra had to jump over decaying bodies as she escaped Mogadishu I have witnessed most phases of the fighting in Somalia since the ouster of President Siad Barre [in 1991] but what is happening now is just beyond belief.
I never thought that there would come a time when I would be forced to jump over decaying bodies as I fled the fighting.
Tears constantly rolled down my cheeks on seeing the number of innocent people killed and as I had to hop over them, along with my five children when we were escaping Mogadishu.
People say that 1,000 people have died during the fighting this month but I believe the number is higher - some died in the bushes where they could not be reached. They either starved or bled to death from injuries sustained during the fighting.
Life was even not easy for us as we fled, we had to pay about $20 (£10) each to board the lorry that was ferrying people to Afgooye and other parts of Somalia and safety.
The journey to the Kenyan border was hard, it was the worst experience for my family and especially for my children, more so the youngest, who is only three years old.
Vulnerable vigils
We survived on water melons throughout the three-day journey under the scorching sun during the day and scary cold nights.

My children cannot erase these memories... they occasionally wake up screaming in the night
Khadra MohammedSomali refugee, Kenya
I hardly slept, each night I kept vigil all through the hours of darkness since we were vulnerable; wild animals could have easily turned us into a feast or rogue militiamen could have attacked us.
On two occasions our lorry was sprayed with bullets by militiamen who were demanding money from us.
Luckily no-one was injured.
My children cannot erase these memories, even after we got to Mandera in Kenya where it is safe, they occasionally wake up screaming in the night after having nightmares.
I really pity the poor people in Mogadishu who are dying because they cannot escape the fighting.
I blame both the Ethiopian troops and the Hawiye clan fighters - they have cold hearts and cannot see how innocent people are dying just because they want power.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

GREEN ROOM : WRITERS TALK BACK !

Over recent weeks, a number of leading voices in the environmental debate brought you their views on a range of issues in the Green Room.
This week, we have offered the writers an opportunity to respond to your comments.

Jonathon Porritt
"I just feel very sorry for the deluded and the paranoid"
James Mair
"Some were against the idea of controlling tourists' 'rights'"
Kevin Smith
Cheap carbon credits can be brought into the EU trading scheme
Eugene Lapointe
"Advocates of sustainable use have not created the market for wildlife"
Jonathan Lash
"All the forces of change are in place for a climate change agenda"

JONATHON PORRITT - Sustainable development: Big not boring

Read Jonathon's original article
Read your comments

Those who continue to deny that climate change is caused by man-made emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are rapidly running out of any residual intellectual credibility.

The world is set to become even more crowded by 2050
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is recognised as a quite unique scientific process, reflecting the consensus of thousands of climate scientists all around the world.
As we have seen with the Fourth Assessment Report recently, that consensus has to be signed-off by all governments - even those that would dearly love to see those findings diluted.
I think it's hardly likely that those governments are being taken in by phoney findings and some kind of mass conspiracy amongst scientists to bring down capitalism itself!
So I just feel very sorry for the deluded and the paranoid that seem to be drawn to organisations like Global Cooling.
'In denial'
Thanks to Maureen Roth for her comments on population. Fair cop, as far as this particular posting in the Green Room was concerned. But as I think the record shows, I am one of the very few environmentalists that has banged on and on about the importance of population for more than 30 years.
It's still startling that governments the world over are in denial about this, even thought it's blindingly obvious that one fact more than any other accounts for today's ecological crisis: that six billion additional humans will have arrived on planet Earth between 1950 and 2050.
Jonathon Porritt is founder director of Forum for the Future and chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission
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EUGENE LAPOINTE - Hunting for conservation solutions
Read Eugene's original article
Read your comments
All respondents shared my passionate desire to conserve wildlife. The fact that so many people have the same objective is surely something to celebrate.
Despite some of the more colourful comments, I don't think anyone is seriously advocating hunting animals to extinction. Where people differ is over the means to achieve the end of conservation.

Sport hunting has helped maintain elephant populations in South Africa
To some people, it is always wrong to kill an animal, even for food.
Richard, Ray and Linda took an animal rights view, equating hunting elephants to hunting humans. I think most people will recognise that there is a big difference.
Dieter confirmed that the hunting ban in Africa has been "a total failure" for habitat management. Another Richard affirmed that properly controlled hunting is the best way to conserve all wildlife species, including elephants.
And Heather wrote that urban people should not impose their "rather naive" views on others, voicing a concern that I come across frequently.
Chandra suggested that a choice exists for Africans between hunting and tourism - I don't see any evidence for this. They can go hand-in-hand so long as there is careful management and regulation.
Ultimately, as Grahame wrote, the aim should be to attach a value to conservation and leverage incentives that give local people a reason to manage their wildlife.
I read all the responses and I am grateful for them. They lead me to the view that idealism is competing with realism. Ideally, we wouldn't need incentives because people would always work to conserve species, whatever their circumstances.
Reality bites
Wildlife should not be a commodity, according to Michael, while Mark wrote that to think of wildlife "in terms of dollars and cents is disgusting".
They might be right in theory, but until the world reaches this particular ideal, we have to work with reality. The world is far from perfect.
Advocates of sustainable use have not created the market for wildlife; they simply accept that it exists and build conservation mechanisms around it.
Eugene Lapointe is president of the International Wildlife Management Consortium (IWMC) World Conservation Trust, and was secretary-general of CITES between 1982-1990
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JAMES MAIR - Eco-tourism: A sustainable trade?
Read James' original article
Read your comments
It was heartening for me to see so many varied responses to my article, especially when comments came from people in numerous tourism-destination countries around the world and those in the tourism trade itself.

People in some island states live in fragile eco/social conditions
Most responses, I am glad to say, agreed with the main issues I raised, although some were vehemently against the idea of controlling tourists' "rights" to travel to which ever place is available.
I would certainly agree with several remarks that ecotourism is not the only activity with potential to threaten some of the world's most sensitive environments.
Conditions of poverty, in which many people around the world live, mean that short-term survival comes quite naturally as a higher priority to them than longer-term environmental degradation. In many cases, development (including the tourism industry) is one way of bringing much-required income to the area.
Several readers (Sarah Terry, Panama, and Friar Balsam, UK) have pointed out that the fundamental problem, in their views, is the growth and overpopulation of humans in a finite, resource-limited world.
Costs and benefits
The likes of Haymanot, Dubai, and Heloise, Ile de La Reunion, feel that some tourism can be very beneficial to a country and I certainly would agree that this may be the case in many places.
Other readers, like me, are sceptical of such labelling of sections of the tourism trade, such as eco- or sustainable tourism. Each case really has to be looked at individually to work out whether the activity is overall beneficial, rather than damaging, to those concerned.
Recent news highlights the tourism pressures, mentioned in my original article, in Galapagos, and also substantiated by the personal observations by one reader - Greg.
The newly-elected Ecuadorian president appears to be determined to change many corrupt practices and may introduce a suspension of some tourism permits in Galapagos.
Next week, I travel with research students to Las Perlas Archipelago in Panama.
This group of islands is considered by many as the next "test-case" for whether or not mistakes from other places, like Galapagos, will be repeated.
Dr James Mair is in the Centre for Marine Biodiversity and Biotechnology at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh
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JONATHAN LASH - Climate irony in the USA
Read Jonathan's original article
Read your comments
The response to my recent Green Room has been fascinating and often passionate.
I would like to add: the US is the largest emitter of greenhouse gasses both today and on a cumulative historical basis. The United States needs to take action on climate change. The world needs to take action.

Hydrogen may be a promising technology but is far from mature
The world cannot solve the problem of climate change without the US, and the US, while it must act, cannot solve the problem unilaterally.
There is evidence that political conditions are changing. The new Democratic leadership in Congress is committed to move forward on climate legislation.
In the last few months, there have been hearings almost daily by Senate and House committees on issues related to climate change and renewable energy. The World Resources Institute has testified repeatedly.
Changing climate
States across the country are enacting legislation to increase vehicle fuel efficiency standards, promote renewable energy usage and develop carbon trading schemes.
More than 440 mayors from 50 states, representing a total population of more than 61 million citizens, have signed the US Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement, adhering to the goals of the Kyoto Protocol.
Partly in response to the emerging patchwork of local requirements and the high cost of uncertainty, and partly because they believe there will be significant opportunities for new products and services in a carbon-constrained world, major US corporations are stepping up and asking Congress to legislate them.
The US will pass domestic climate legislation. All the forces of change are in place for a climate change agenda to move forward, but it will take some time yet. Once domestic action is in place, the US will pursue an international diplomatic agenda.
Jonathan Lash is president of the World Resources Institute in Washington DC
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KEVIN SMITH - 'Obscenity' of carbon trading
Read Kevin's original article
Read your comments
Many people commented that it has only been the overly generous allocation of credits that has been the problem, and that if the cap in the "cap and trade" was tighter, the price of carbon would increase and would start to act as an incentive for industry in developed nations to significantly reduce their emissions.

Regulation, not voluntary schemes, is needed, says Kevin Smith
Having been aware of the possibility of genuine action taking place, the business community aggressively lobbied for a "Linking Directive" to be incorporated into the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, whereby credits generated through carbon offset projects in developing countries, under the Kyoto Protocol, can be imported and used in the scheme.
No matter how strict the caps are set, the linking directive ensures that a cheap and theoretically endless supply of project-based credits can be brought into the scheme, keeping supply high and prices down.
Regulation needed
One person responded to my article that "the US's SO2 (sulphur dioxide) trading system reduced SO2 levels to 30% below the required limits, it was a spectacular success".
Not so spectacular when placed in the context of Germany, which managed to cut power plant sulphur emissions by 90% from the first proposal in 1982 to the completion of the programme in 1998; relying on firm regulation and legislation and no trading scheme of any sort.
An evaluation of the US Clean Air Act by Margaret Taylor of the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, concluded that "the weight of evidence of the history of innovation in SO2 control technology does not support the superiority of the 1990 Clean Air Act - as an inducement for environmental technological innovation, as compared with the effects of traditional environmental policy approaches".
Kevin Smith, a researcher with Carbon Trade Watch, recently published The Carbon Neutral Myth: Offset Indulgences for your Climate Sins, a critical report on the voluntary offsets industry
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The Green Room is a series of opinion pieces on environmental issues running weekly on the BBC News website

BBC NEWS REPORT.

STUDENTS SHARE GRIEF ON INTERNET !

Students have been using the internet to organise memorial vigils. Hundreds of messages of condolence have been posted on internet sites after 33 people were killed in a shooting rampage at a US university.
Students at Virginia Tech University, where the massacre took place, have been sharing their grief on networking websites like myspace and facebook.
Many people have used online message boards to organise memorial vigils.
Others have posted information on victims and survivors or to let family and friends know they are okay.
Planet Blacksburg, named for Virginia Tech's hometown, has been running a message board called The Wall: A Community in Grief, which has gathered more than 300 expressions of condolence and support.
Sense of outrage
Maureen had this to say: "As a graduate from VT, I have been struggling with a gamut of emotions from yesterday's events... I cry one minute and not the next. I am not sure how I should feel or what I should say."
From across the US and around the world, messages of condolence have been posted on other websites.
Why the hell does [stuff] like this happen? WHY?... I pray for all of the families of the victims, I hate seeing this kind of thing happen -Reid Thompson.

Victims' profiles
Send us your reaction

Many of the postings have an image of Virginia Tech's logo with a black ribbon around it.
"My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who was affected by this tragedy," wrote Bryant Sutherland from Pittsburgh on facebook.
In many of the online messages the grief is mixed with a sense of outrage.
From Lima, Ohio, Reid Thompson wrote: "Why the hell does [stuff] like this happen? WHY? These situations make responsible gun owners like me look bad, I just don't know why people can't control themselves. I pray for all of the families of the victims, I hate seeing this kind of thing happen."
'I'm ok at VT'
The administration at Virginia Tech has organised a variety of vigils and services for students, staff and relatives of victims.
On facebook, there have been dozens of postings advertising candlelight vigils at Virginia Tech and at colleges and universities across the United States.
"I sent out the group (message) at about six pm (Monday) to 80-100 people," Virginia Tech student Thomas Lane told Planet Blackwater.
"About 45-50 people actually attended. I'm impressed by the universities all over the country. Schools from all over have sent me things."
Students at the University of Texas are using facebook to organise a vigil for 23 April. More than 570 people have confirmed on the website that they will attend.
A group called I'm ok at VT has been set up on facebook where information on people killed and injured in the shootings has been posted.
One student asked: "Has anyone heard about Nicole White?? She sits beside me in my Abnormal Psychology class and I really want to know if she is ok."
The reply came six postings later: "Nicole White was just confirmed to have been shot and killed yesterday, please pray for her family."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

10 THINGS !

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Mr Man author Roger Hargreaves is Britain's third best-selling author, having sold more than 100 million books.

2. Termites are cockroaches, according to the Royal Society's Biology Letters journal.More details

3. Denmark is the happiest country in Europe; Italy the unhappiest. (The UK was 9th out of 15.)More details

4. Kate Middleton's family tree has been traced back 200 years to ancestors who survived coal mining, malnutrition and a cholera epidemic in the North East.

5. Male doctors are twice as likely to drink and drive as anyone outside the health service.

6. Dr Seuss' name is pronounced Dr Zoice.

7. A water-tight denial by a politician – as opposed to one that leaves room for later manoeuvre - is known as a Sherman pledge. The other sort is called a non-denial denial.More details

8. Chocolate is better than a passionate kiss, causing a more intense and longer-lasting buzz, and doubling the heart rate.More details

9. The average Briton has sex 4,239 times.

10. Spiralling obesity rates are forcing councils to upgrade their crematoria, to take wider coffins.More details

Soures: 1 - the Times, 16 April; 4 – the Observer, 15 April; 5 – the Times, 16 April; 6 – Daily Telegraph, 19 April; 9 – News of the World, 15 April.

BBC MAGAZINE.

SCORES KILLED IN SOMALIA CLASHES !

More than 60 people have been killed in a fourth day of heavy fighting between Ethiopian troops and Islamist militia in Somalia's capital of Mogadishu.
Doctors said they had been overrun with casualties and there were reports of bodies strewn across streets.
More than 130 people were killed and 200 injured in the first three days of fighting, a local rights group said.
Ethiopian forces have been in Mogadishu since December after helping Somalia's transitional government oust Islamists.
The UN says more than 320,000 people have fled fighting in the capital since February.
'Humanitarian disaster'
One confirmed attack on Saturday was on the al-Barakah market.
A number of people were killed when mortar rounds landed. Local reports spoke of bodies mutilated beyond recognition.
Ethiopians are trying to kill me because I am Somali, and insurgents are not happy because I am not picking up a gun
Ali HajiMogadishu resident
AFP news agency reported a mortar round also struck a bus in the southern Hodan district, killing four people.
The BBC's Mohammed Moalimu in Mogadishu says some of the injured have been placed under trees in front of medical facilities.
Somalia's Elman Human Rights Organisation described the violence as the worst in recent years.
"I call on the both sides to stop the fighting and shelling without any condition," chairman Sudan Ali Ahmed said to Associated Press news agency.
One resident, Ali Haji, said: "Ethiopians are trying to kill me because I am Somali, and insurgents are not happy because I am not picking up a gun and fighting with them. I have lost all hope."
The UN is warning of a humanitarian disaster. Most of those who have fled lack food and water and hundreds have already died from cholera and diarrhoea, UN humanitarian co-ordinator Eric Laroche said.
Somalia has not had a functional government since 1991. A transitional government was formed in 2004, but has so far failed to take full control of the country.
'Opportunistic violence'
Ethiopian forces backing the transitional government swept into Mogadishu in December displacing the Islamic Courts Union (UIC).
Violence has intensified since then, after the relative calm when the UIC ran the city.
The insurgents are believed to be a mixture of Islamist fighters and militiamen from the Hawiye clan - the largest in Mogadishu.
US Ambassador to Kenya and Somalia Michael Ranneberger said the ongoing violence was part of an attempt by these groups to create an insurgency, but that it was not yet a structured movement.
"At this point it's opportunistic violence," Mr Ranneberger told AP news agency. "They're not organised like an insurgency."
Ethiopian troops have started to withdraw, to be replaced by an African Union peacekeeping force, but only 1,200 of the 8,000 troops the AU says it needs have been deployed.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

LONDON MARATHON 2007

London Marathon 2007
Live: BBC One coverage
Live: London mini Marathon
Live: London Marathon finish line
22 April 2007
Contact TV team
Men's race
Women's race
Wheelchair race
As it happened
Latest photos
Course guide

Lel claimed a second London crown with a sprint to the line. Martin Lel, the winner in 2005, out-sprinted his rivals to claim his second victory in the London Marathon.
Six runners were grouped together well into the final mile but the Kenyan was the strongest, winning in a time of two hours, seven minutes and 41 seconds.
Moroccan Abderrahim Goumri was a surprise second in his debut marathon with 2006 winner Felix Limo in third.
It was another disappointing experience in London for Haile Gebrselassie, who dropped out at the 19-mile mark.
Lel had lost to compatriot Limo in a sprint to the line last year but this time he surged ahead over the final few hundred metres to hold off Goumri.
"It was one of the most tactical races I have run," said 29-year-old Lel. "There were several champions running so I am proud.
"I corrected the mistakes from last year and I had to be careful to preserve my energy, but it was an interesting race."
I was on my own from six miles - it was a long way to run on my own
Britain's Dan Robinson
The main protagonists had stuck together through much of the race with Lel, Limo, double world champion Jaouad Gharib, Gebrselassie and world record holder Paul Tergat all refusing to pick up the pace.
The first drama came when double Olympic 10,000m champion Gebrselassie dropped out of the lead group clutching his stomach.

The Ethiopian told BBC Sport: "I had a stitch here in my chest and could not continue. I'm not injured I just could not breathe.
"It's not the heat, maybe something I ate, but I don't know."
The real battle for the title began in the closing two miles. Tergat and Ramaala fell further back and Gharib could not match the finish to the line.
In the end Lel's legs had the edge and ensured Kenya won their fourth successive title.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Dan Robinson was the first Briton to cross the line as he came home ninth in 2:14.14 ahead of compatriot Andi Jones.
"It as nice to be the first Briton and I am reasonably satisfied," said Brown. "I was on my own from six miles and it was a long way to run on my own.
"It is easy to slip a couple of seconds as I didn't have many people to pick them off, and I think that is what happened."
Robinson's time was outside the qualifying standard set by UK Athletics for this summer's World Championships but is expected to be selected.
British number one, Jon Brown, did not start the race after a bout of sickness.

BBC SPORTS NEWS REPORT.

CALL FOR NIGERIA ELECTION RE-RUN !

Police fired on rioting crowds in the northern state of Katsina. Nigeria's biggest election monitoring group has said that Saturday's presidential poll was so flawed that it should be scrapped and held again.
Transition Monitoring Group chief, Innocent Chukwuma, said a winner could not be announced on the basis of results from just half of the country.
Voting was marred by violence in which several people died. There was also an attempt to blow up the election HQ.
Ballot delivery failures delayed the poll and some ballot boxes were stolen.
"In many parts of the country elections did not start on time or did not start at all," Mr Chukwuma told Reuters news agency.
He said the official electoral commission had not been properly prepared for the vote.

Relief for those who vote
At the polls: Reporters' log

The head of the European Union monitoring mission, Max van den Berg, said he feared there had been no improvement on last week's regional polls, which were marred by 50 deaths and widespread fraud.
Twenty-four candidates are seeking to replace outgoing President Obasanjo in Africa's most populous nation.
The presidential poll was running alongside elections for the National Assembly and Senate.
Election officials hope to publish results by Monday night.
The new government is scheduled to take power on 29 May.
Cutlasses
Officials had struggled to deliver some of the 60m ballot papers to stations ahead of opening time.

NIGERIAN ELECTION
60m registered voters
120,000 ballot boxes
360 House of Representative seats to be elected
109 Senate seats to be elected
24 presidential candidates
Main contenders:
Atiku Abubakar for the AC, 60-years-old
Muhammadu Buhari, ANPP, 64
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, PDP, 55
Polls open 1000-1700 (local time) (0900-1600 GMT)
To avoid a run-off, a candidate needs highest number of votes overall and at least 25% of votes in 24 of the 36 states.

Candidates' profiles

In the central state of Nassarawa, close to the capital, Abuja, a number of policemen were killed while escorting election officials with the papers.
Police fired on crowds in the northern state of Katsina, the home state of both the governing party candidate, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and one of his main opponents, Muhammadu Buhari.
Four people were killed in clashes there after only half the voting papers arrived.
In nearby Kano, men armed with cutlasses and guns stole ballot boxes while in Onde state, in the south-west, men disguised as policemen abducted election officials.
The boldest attempt to disrupt polling was on Friday when a petrol tanker laden with gas cylinders was used in an attack on the electoral commission's headquarters in Abuja.
The attackers tried to roll the unmanned tanker into the building, but the vehicle missed its target and came to a halt.
Street protest
Mr Obasanjo said despite flaws, Nigeria could achieve a peaceful and democratic handover of power.

The more thugs you have, the more votes you have -Sha'aya'u Aminu, 23, student.

Voters' views

Speaking after voting, he said that "those who do not want these elections to take place, they have left no stone unturned to make sure it does not hold".
Mr Buhari said no-one should claim victory because there were so many irregularities in polling.
He said he would call his supporters out on to the streets if the governing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) declared victory.
Rival opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar described the election as a "national tragedy".
His Action Congress party accused the authorities of ensuring "inadequate supply of voting materials" in its strongholds.
The voting in Nassarawa State has been very peaceful -Dr Samuel Jimba in Keffi.

At the polls: Voters' log

The BBC's David Bamford in Abuja says the comments show Nigeria could be in for some political turbulence as it seeks for the first time to replace one elected civilian head of state with another.
Nigeria is one of the world's biggest oil producers. It is of key strategic interest to both the West and the growing economies of the East.
But despite the country's huge oil wealth, tens of millions live in poverty.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

NASA KILLER 'HAD BAD JOB REVIEW' !

The gunman who killed a hostage and himself in a stand-off at a Nasa centre in Texas blamed his victim for a poor work performance review, police said.
William Phillips, 60, took a revolver to work at the Johnson Space Center on Friday and shot dead fellow employee David Beverly, 62.
Phillips bought the gun on the same day last month that he printed off the bad review, police said.
A woman was also held hostage in a four hour ordeal but was only slightly hurt.
Nasa said Phillips, a contract engineer, had been employed for about 12 years, was unmarried, had no children and reportedly lived on his own.
Security review
Nasa officials said Phillips brought the revolver into a building that houses communication systems for the space shuttle.
Phillips confronted Beverly, a quality-control engineer, about the review and despite attempts by his victim to calm him, shot him twice.

The stand-off took place in the communications Building 44.
Pillips left the room briefly but later returned and shot Beverly another two times as he tried to resist, police said.
"The suspect blamed Mr Beverly for being responsible for his negative job-performance situation," Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt said.
Nasa said the woman hostage, Fran Crenshaw, was tied to a chair for hours and succeeded in providing a calming influence, preventing the situation from getting worse.
Phillips held her hostage until he shot himself dead.
Nasa says it is undertaking a review of security procedures.
It evacuated some employees in the building when the situation occurred while others were ordered to stay in their offices.
The Johnson Space Center contains Nasa's mission control, which oversees the agency's space flights.
Doors to mission control were locked and outlying roads cordoned off.
The stand-off came less than a week after a gunman killed 32 students and teaching staff at Virginia Tech university before killing himself.
There has been a rash of security alerts across the US, which is also marking the eighth anniversary of the Columbine school massacre in which 15 people died.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

RELIEF FOR NIGERIANS WHO CAN VOTE !

Relief for Nigerians who can vote
By Senan Murray BBC News website, Abuja.

The waiting queue of voters outside the OAU Quarters polling station in the capital, Abuja, suddenly comes alive as electoral officers arrive about half an hour late to kick-off the voting.
But the voters will have to wait a bit longer as the electoral officers sort out the ballots, the collapsible ballot box and a desk under a tree.
It is almost 1100 local time (1000GMT) and finally voting gets under way.
But Joe Orpin who has just turned 19 and is happy to be casting his first vote is disappointed by the delay.
Anyone approaching the area has to put their hands up in the air in surrender -Peter Okwoche in Yenagoa

At the polls: Reporters' log

"I am excited to be finally voting as I couldn't vote in 2003. But I am not happy at all with the delay. I just want to vote and go home," he says.
In another polling station in Abuja's Garki II, there is a long horseshoe queue of voters who are patiently waiting in the scorching sun to take their turn at the ballot box.
"I am happy with the way things are going, except for the sun," says Solomon Fom, a middle-aged man who is standing on the queue with beads of sweat on his forehead.
Delays
Voters in Bauchi and Gombe in Nigeria's north-east are not half as lucky as voters there were still waiting at the polling stations at 1330 without any sign of electoral officers.

Once it began, voting was a relaxed affair in Abuja "It'd be a miracle if some people in Bauchi State manage to vote today," says local journalist Tashikalma Nehemiah Hallah in the state capital.
"There are villages such as Burra in Ningi local government area of the state.
"It takes seven hours of driving on a very bad road to get there from Bauchi. Same thing with Beli and Dengi villages in Kirfi local government area.
"To be quite honest, I don't see how voting could possibly take place in these areas today."
Further east in Gombe State, voting has yet to start too.
"I am speaking to you from a polling station in front of my house in Nasarawa B area of Kaltungo town and I can confirm to you that voting has not started here," Iliya Pau told the BBC's News website from Gombe State.
Arrival of voting material in time is good -Idris Dangalan in Kano.

At the polls: Voters' log

"In fact, what we are hearing is that voting has not started anywhere in the whole of Gombe State."
Further up in Adamawa State, home of Vice-President Atiku Abubakar who is also an opposition candidate in the election, voting has started but with a very low turn out.
"I have just voted, but I must say that people don't seem to be interested in the elections anymore as there are very few people at the polling stations in Yola and Jimeta towns," Nuhu Gapsiso told the BBC News website from Yola.
Send us your voting experiences by texting +44 77 86 20 50 75. Don't forget to tell us your name and where you are.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

COELHO SAVAGES FEMINIST 'NIGHTMARE' !

Coelho's famous works include The Alchemist and The Zahir. Brazilian author Paulo Coelho has been putting forward some forthright opinions during the promotion of his latest novel, The Witch Of Portobello, including an attack on feminism.
Subtitled A Novel of Magic, Loss and Love, the book centres on a woman named Sherine - also known as Athena - who lives in London's Portobello Road and who has powers of prophesy.
Coelho told BBC World Service's The Ticket programme that these powers were really aspects of a feminine side that both men and women had lost, due, he argued, to feminism and political correctness.
"Feminism was a nightmare," he said.
"Women lost this feminine side by trying to be feminists. I'm totally against this. I think that we are different genders, so we have to get the best of ourselves.
"Having said that, women are much open to love and intuition, and we men need this."
Strange gifts
Coelho admitted that many readers might be "shocked" by his words, but stressed that he was from the "hippy generation, and so I know what I'm talking about".
"In the end, what we have to share are our opposites," he said.
"If you are just one - if you think like a man or behave like a man, if you try to go for the same rights - you lose this beauty of the feminine soul."

Coelho recently set a world record for book signings. The Witch of Portobello centres on Athena, who works in a bank and sells real estate, and her strange disappearance.
It is told from the perspective of her friends, relatives and acquaintances, and how they came to know both her and her strange gifts.
Coelho explained that he believes that the powers of foresight Athena has in the book will one day be developed by all human beings.
"I don't think there are any contradictions in living a normal life and at the same time trying to develop these inner gifts that we all have," he said.
"Athena is the prototype of a person who does this. She lives a normal life, but at the same time she goes to this realm of the unknown - something we don't do anymore, because we want our universe to be fully explained."
He further explained that this psychic ability is really what he means by a "feminine side" - which involves intuition and requires rigour, discipline and love to be brought out.
"You and I have the same gifts - although sometimes we try to hide them because it is not politically correct, or people won't understand," he said.
"That's why the title is The Witch - because 'witch' has a very negative connotation; witches in the middle ages were females who were executed for a number of reasons.
"I do regard Athena as a witch, but I don't believe the word witch has this pejorative connotation anymore. She's a good witch."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

MOHAWKS BLOCK CANADIAN RAIL LINE !

The protesters say they are frustrated by slow negotiations. A group of Mohawk Indians have cut off a major Canadian rail link in a dispute over land.
The protesters parked a bus over tracks on the line between the cities of Toronto and Ottawa.
Fire crews and police are at the site, which the Mohawks say they intend to occupy for 48 hours.
The national rail company says it has a court order to break up the protest. But in the meantime it has had to use buses to transport its passengers.
The demonstrators set up a camp and lit a fire.
They say they want the provincial government to close a gravel quarry which they say is on Mohawk land.
Protest leader Shawn Brant said their action was an attempt to speed up negotiations on the dispute.
'Not sanctioned'
"It is one that has come out of frustration. There are no other avenues to pursue," he said.
Canadian National Railway said it runs 25 freight trains and 22 passenger trains a day on the track.
"Clearly this is a very significant issue for CN," spokesman Mark Hallman said.
The official Mohawk council said it did not sanction the protest.
"We're disappointed that some of our members have taken matters into their own hands," Donald Maracle, chief of the Bay of Quinte Mohawks, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ROLLS-ROYCE TO PULL OUT OF SUDAN !

British aerospace firm Rolls-Royce is to pull out of Sudan in light of its concerns about the worsening humanitarian situation in Darfur.
Rolls, which supplies engines to oil firms in the country, said it would "progressively withdraw" from existing contracts and not seek new business.
Foreign firms have come under pressure to cease their Sudanese operations in response to the situation in Darfur.
More than 200,000 people have died during the four-year conflict there.
'Responsible line'
The UN is set to consider a new resolution to try to end the violence between rebels and the pro-government Arab militia, which has also left more than two million people displaced.
Although it does not have any presence in Darfur, Rolls has been providing support services to oil producers in Sudan for more than five years.
The company has decided it should discontinue business in Sudan
Rolls-Royce
The firm does not have any contracts with the Sudanese government and its business there represents only a small fraction of its global operations.
The decision to gradually remove its 20 staff had been taken "in view of increasing international humanitarian concerns about the situation in Darfur", the firm said.
"The company recently reviewed its position and has decided it should discontinue business in Sudan," it added.
"Rolls-Royce believes this is a responsible line to adopt in the current circumstances."
'Fuelling the crisis'
Critics of the Sudanese government's role in the violence in Darfur and the plight of the people in the region welcomed the firm's decision.
"Companies cannot blinker themselves from the impact they are having on the vulnerable people of Sudan," said Hamish Falconer, from Sudan Divestment UK, a body which campaigns for businesses to sever their commercial links with Sudan.
"It is a stark challenge to the other companies whose operations are helping fuel the world's worst humanitarian crisis."
Sudan remains one of Africa's leading oil producers, with many foreign companies active in the country.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

A LETTER FROM THE DIASPORA !

Saturday 21th April 2007

Dear Friends.

Londoners have a saying, 'You have to laugh.' It refers to situations that could be described as tragi-comic, where laughter is the only recourse which will save you from downright heartbreak and tragedy. In other words, you have to laugh or you will weep.

Zimbabwe is like that. Sometimes, when you listen to the ministers and top cops defending the indefensible, you simply don't know whether to laugh or cry. Is this man serious you ask yourself. Can he really mean what he's saying or is he so brain-dead that he no longer knows the difference between sense and nonsense.

Last week it was Kemba Mohadi in an interview with SW Radio Africa that was pure slapstick. Tears of mirth at the utter stupidity of the man as he denies the sickening brutality going on all over the country. He doesn't even make excuses; he simply denies the evidence! An estimated six hundred people beaten and bruised, two murders and parrot-like the Minister repeats ' Not true, not true.' You have to laugh!

This week it's the Department of Statistics trying to find ways of NOT telling us the true rate of inflation in the country. At first, we were told that there would be a delay while 'the technical glitches were ironed out'. We all know what that means; it's called 'massaging the figures' After the rate for February shot up to over 1730%, it was patently obvious that the government simply hadn't a clue what to do about it. There was no way they could disguise the fact that the country was in hyper-inflation with the rate probably nearer 2.500%. But you know what? It doesn't really matter whether they tell us or not. Zimbabweans don't need statistics to explain their desperate poverty as they struggle to put even one meal a day on the table. It's not statistics the people need, it's solutions.

Today I read the latest excuse from the Dept of Statistics is that their computers have a virus! And we all know what the virus is called, don't we? It's the Zanu PF virus and there is no known cure for this deadly condition except total eradication in free and fair elections. This virus clearly affects the whole body politic but particularly the brain function where powers of reason and logical thought are seriously impaired, if not destroyed forever. How else could otherwise normal human beings talk such blatant nonsense?

Look back over the last seven years and remember some of the excuses these brain dead officials have come up with; the failure of Zesa to deliver electricity was caused by a naughty monkey tampering with the transformer, it was obviously an imperialist primate imported from Blair's Britain; the food shortages that were just not going to happen because the then Agriculture Minister Made had flown over the country and seen for himself the flourishing harvest - of grass! Read the Herald or listen to ZBC and you will find dozens of similar examples of Zanu PF idiocy. You have to laugh!

It all reminds me of my favourite homework story. The village boy who says he was crossing the flooded river on his way to school when a crocodile leapt from the raging waters and devoured his homework. Result: the whole class and the teacher collapse in side-splitting mirth. But, and here's the rub, the boy still gets punished - and he still has to do his homework. So these brain dead Zanies can invent as many nonsensical excuses as they like, no one believes them. And in the end they will have to pay for their criminal stupidity... What goes around comes around!

This is my last Letter from the Diaspora. The Litany Bird will return to her nest next week; let's hope she finds it as she left it.Keep smiling through the tears, Zimbabwe. We shall overcome.

Ndini shamwari yenyu. PH

DEADLY SOMALIA CLASHES CONTINUE !

Heavy fighting between Ethiopian troops and Islamist militiamen has continued for a fourth day in Mogadishu, Somalia.
The number of deaths from the clashes is unconfirmed but medical sources say scores more have died in rocket and mortar attacks.
More than 100 people were killed and 200 injured in the first three days of fighting, a local rights group said.
Ethiopian forces have been in Mogadishu since December after helping Somalia's transitional government oust Islamists.
The UN says more than 320,000 people have fled fighting in the Somali capital since February.
'Humanitarian disaster''
One confirmed attack on Saturday was on the al-Barakah market.
The rest of my family fled because they could not [bear to] see the flesh of my son, who is lying in the middle of the house - Isa Gedi, Mogadishu resident.

Clashes in pictures
Read Isa Gedi's interview
Isa Gedi

A number of people were killed there when mortar rounds landed. Local reports spoke of bodies mutilated beyond recognition.
AFP news agency reported a mortar round also struck a bus in the southern Hodan district, killing four people.
Mortar and rocket fire had continued through the night.
One resident told Reuters a storm had also passed through, adding: "At one point you couldn't tell the difference."
Another resident, Ali Haji, said: "Ethiopians are trying to kill me because I am Somali, and insurgents are not happy because I am not picking up a gun and fighting with them. I have lost all hope."
Madina, said to be the only hospital in operation, is reported to have packed wards with access to it only by roads vulnerable to gunfire.
The UN is warning of a humanitarian disaster. Most of those who have fled lack food and water and hundreds have already died from cholera and diarrhoea, UN humanitarian co-ordinator Eric Laroche said.
Somalia has not had an effective national government for 16 years.
The insurgents are believed to be a mixture of Islamist fighters and militiamen from the Hawiye clan - the largest in Mogadishu.
Violence has intensified this year after the relative calm when the UIC ran the city.
The Ethiopian troops have started to withdraw, to be replaced by an African Union peacekeeping force. But only 1,200 troops, of the 8,000 the AU says it needs, have been deployed.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

Scottish Wildlife Volunteer !

Yesterday morning was my first day on volunteer duty at the Loch of the Lowes.

www.swt.org.com

I have been meaning to take part in this worth while job for a few years, but for one reason or another for the past few years I always seemed to be away. I was away this year for the month of February in Zimbabwe, so now the next few months were clear. I went along to the Start of the Season meeting, to find a dedicated number of people all eager and willing to offer their time to man the hides, day and night to protect the Osprey and their eggs.

There had been a great deal of improvements to the shop. There was now an area where one could sit and watch out of large full length windows looking out to a cleared section, in which there were several bird feeding boxes. There were so many birds to see, from Great Tits to Woodpeekers, Wrens and Robins being some of the species. A beautiful red squirrel delighted us all by sitting and eating the nuts he manged to get out of the various boxes.

On one of the walls a very large Video Cam was sited, and it showed all the action at and on the nest. The picture was so clear, and I was able to get a really good look at these magnificent birds at long last. There was a great deal of interactive material for people to enjoy, specially for children.

Anyway I got up early and set off with warm gloves, scarf, and extra warm jacket , and my flask of tea, bananas and oat biscuits to eat. On arrival I was met by Andrea who took me to the Hide, She showed me how the Log-in Book worked and how to contact her on the mobile phone. She also attached the high powered binoculars to the bar in the hide, so that we could use them and so that they were not removed!

There was an Osprey on the nest I could see through one of the binos. It was the female, and sitting on a nearby tree watching her was her mate.My stint proved rather uneventful, just the ususal, the male taking over the guarding of the 3 eggs while she went off, and then her return later on. The male then took off to find some fish for her. My time at the hide went by very quickly, and there were a number of people who popped in for a look. As well as the Osprey there are several other birds to see various ducks, swans and swallows being some of them. So there is plenty to see and lots going on all the time.

I am booked in again and I am looking forward to it very much indeed.

WOOLMER DEATH INQUEST POSTPONED !

It is thought Mr Woolmer was strangled. The inquest into the death of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer has been postponed because of "significant developments" in the case.
Woolmer was found dead in his Kingston hotel on 18 March, the day after his side lost to Ireland in the World Cup.
The inquest was set for 23 April but has now been delayed after recent, undisclosed findings.
"The coroner has been advised there are recent and significant developments," the Jamaican justice ministry said.
"These new developments are critical to the progress and the eventual result of the investigation."
The results of the new findings will determine whether the inquest will be held at a later date, the statement went on to say.
It is believed the ex-England batsman was strangled.
Police probing Woolmer's murder had sent CCTV images to Scotland Yard for further consideration.
A team of four officers from Scotland Yard are in Jamaica to help with the inquiry, following a formal request from the Jamaican authorities.
Pakistan also sent as an observer senior police investigator Mir Zubair Mahmood, who led the investigation into the murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi.
He and another security official had come at the request of the Jamaican government, an official said.
Two forensic experts from Interpol, the France-based international police agency, have also been helping the investigation.
Jamaica's deputy police commissioner Mark Shields has said the foreign investigators will help with DNA analysis and also examine theories that Woolmer may have been poisoned before being strangled.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

EU - RUSSIA RELATIONS 'AT LOW EBB' !

Mr Mandelson urged partnerships to deal with mistrust. Trust between the EU and Russia has reached its lowest level since the end of the Cold War, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has warned.
He said this was partly due to concerns over energy, which both thought the other was using as a political weapon.
Mr Mandelson urged the creation of a "grand bargain" with security of demand and supply on both sides as well as investment in each other's markets.
Another cause was different perceptions of the 1990s post-Soviet transition.
There was also a lack of respect between the two sides, he said.
"Neither [side] thinks they enjoy the respect from the other they are entitled to expect," he said at a conference in the Italian city of Bologna.
To overcome this mistrust it would be necessary to anchor the Russian economy in the EU's single market and the international trade system, he added.
Partnership call
"Relations between the EU and Russia ... contain a level of misunderstanding or even mistrust we have not seen since the end of the Cold War," he told the conference.
In my view the roots of these misunderstandings lie in different perceptions of the 1990s and what's happened since the collapse of the Soviet empire -Peter Mandelson.

Are EU-Russian relations deteriorating?

But he later clarified his remarks, saying there was not the same animosity between the two sides that there was during their nuclear-based confrontation.
"Since the Cold War we've had obviously very different, much better relations, ... nonetheless I think they're going through a very difficult period," he told the BBC World Service's Newshour programme.
"I'm somebody who believes that Russia's interests and Europe's interests will be served by the strong partnership between the both of us," he added.
"You're only going to create that partnership if you deal with the current misunderstandings and mistrusts between us, and in my view the roots of these misunderstandings lie in different perceptions of the 1990s and what's happened since the collapse of the Soviet empire."
The trade commissioner said it was not surprising that Russians were sceptical about democracy and the market economy, in view of the unhappiness caused by economic liberalisation and privatisation during the 1990s.
'No respect'
Mr Mandelson told the conference that the EU needed guarantees Russia would not cut off oil and gas supplies.
Recent rows over energy costs between Russia and former Soviet states have caused temporary disruption of supply to western Europe and sparked accusations that Russia is using energy exports as a political weapon.
Russia, meanwhile, believed that the EU was generating an insecurity of demand for its supplies, Mr Mandelson said, and urged Europe not to give the impression it was determined to avoid dependence on Russian oil and gas at all costs.
He said Russia should diversify its economy away from a reliance on energy.
"In the modern age, the essential characteristics of a country with Russia's huge potential cannot be heavy, centralised political control, and an economy based on the rents from energy resources," he said.
Membership of the World Trade Organisation would both strengthen the Russian economy and make resolving trade disputes easier, he told the conference.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

PHILIPPINE GROUP BEHEADS HOSTAGES !

Philippine troops have been battling militants in Jolo for many months. Abu Sayyaf militants have decapitated seven hostages and sent their heads to troops on the southern Philippine island of Jolo, the military says.
The men - six construction workers and a factory worker, all of whom were Christian - were seized on Monday near the town of Parang in Jolo.
The military has vowed to intensify its efforts to track down the group.
Philippine troops have been fighting Islamic militants holed up in Jolo's mountainous terrain for several months.
Abu Sayyaf is the smallest of four Muslim rebel groups in the Philippines, with about 400 members.
The group is thought to have links with both al-Qaeda and the regional militant group Jemaah Islamiah, and has been blamed for a number of kidnappings and bombings in the region.
Island campaign
Militants ordered civilians to deliver two of the heads to a military camp and the other five heads were left at a second camp later on Thursday, officials said.
The men's remains were recovered from a village on Friday.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said that the killings demonstrated the group's ruthlessness.
"Abu Sayyaf's acts of terror will not go unpunished," she said.
Maj-Gen Ruben Rafael, head of military forces in Jolo, said the killings had been carried out in retaliation for the death of a militant commander.
The road workers' employer had refused to pay a ransom for the men, he added.
In recent months Philippine troops, aided by US counter-terrorism trainers, have carried out extensive work on the island to track down the militants.
Two of the group's senior leaders, Abu Sulaiman and Khaddafy Janjalani, have been killed but dozens of gunmen are thought to remain on the island.
Bali bombing suspects Dulmatin and Umar Patek are also thought to be in the region.
The island of Jolo is some 950km (600 miles) south of the Philippine capital, Manila.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ALL BETS OFF AS FRENCH POLLS LOOM

All bets off as French polls loom
By Caroline Wyatt BBC Paris correspondent.

The French approach this Sunday's first round of voting for a new president in a mood of grumpiness and disillusionment after 12 years of stasis under Jacques Chirac.

Could Jean-Marie Le Pen pull off an upset again?
Rarely have so many French voters been so undecided this close to polling day.
But rarely have the French faced such a crucial political crossroads.
They are agonising over what 21st-Century France should be like, where it stands on the world stage and how the nation can reverse its economic decline, having fallen from 7th place in terms of GDP per head to a mere 17th over the past 25 years.
The presidential election campaign has reflected that crisis of confidence and the widespread fear of what globalisation means for France.
Yet personalities have dominated the campaign as much as policies, making this one of the most compelling presidential races in decades, as a younger generation of politicians fights it out for the Elysee Palace.
The need to reinvigorate the French economy and create jobs, especially for the young, has been top of the agenda, followed by the question of French identity and "French values". Three of the four main candidates have wrapped themselves in the tricolour, singing the Marseillaise, competing to be the most patriotic defender of those values, albeit with radically different interpretations.
Trouble for Sarkozy
The frontrunner, 52-year-old right-wing former Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, portrays himself as the candidate who would make a real break with the past, despite being in government for the past five years under outgoing President Jacques Chirac, 74.

Click to see leading candidates' poll ratings

Mr Sarkozy has promised to lower France's stubbornly high unemployment rate of 9% by making the French realise "the value of hard work again".
He has not dared pledge to scrap the Socialists' 35-hour working week, but has said it should be a minimum, rather than a maximum, with a campaign slogan that might not seem quite so revolutionary in many other countries: "work more to earn more".
The son of a Hungarian immigrant, Mr Sarkozy remains a controversial figure: loved by big business in France, but viewed with deep suspicion by many in the suburbs, after he promised to hose the racaille (rabble) from the streets ahead of the riots in November 2005.
Alienation
The trouble in the suburbs that year made clear the deep social divides that cleave France in two, and the feeling among many young French of immigrant origin that they are excluded not only from the employment market but French society itself.
Mr Sarkozy's call for a Ministry of National Identity - and the need for immigrants to prove their loyalty to France - may be aimed at stealing votes from far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, but it has also been a turn-off for some centrist voters, while Mr Le Pen has needled him by claiming that the French will not vote for a president "of immigrant stock".
The issue of Mr Sarkozy's temperament has also surfaced in the final days of campaigning. His political opponents have suggested that he is too unpredictable and potentially unstable to govern France, citing a book by former Equality Minister Azouz Begag in which Mr Sarkozy is quoted as threatening to "smash his face in" for a perceived insult.

New-look left
Hot on the heels of Mr Sarkozy is Segolene Royal, 53, the photogenic Socialist candidate and mother-of-four whose personal popularity and high media profile last year helped her win the Socialist nomination against the wishes of the party's "elephants", or elder statesmen. They still see her as an outsider and a stubborn individualist with a conservative streak - even though her partner and father of their children, Francois Hollande, is head of the Socialist Party.

She combines traditional leftist economic policies with a rather more right-wing tinge on social issues and an image as a firm "headmistress" type who believes in the firm smack of discipline.
Her French Army colonel father (whom she sued for maintenance after he divorced her mother) might well have been proud of her suggestion of army boot camps for violent young offenders.
Yet her pedestrian campaign has failed to set France alight. Women voters appear to prefer Mr Sarkozy, while some traditional Socialists say they will vote for Ms Royal only reluctantly.
Those doubts over Ms Royal - and question marks over her competence on the world stage, after a series of gaffes abroad - have allowed UDF centrist Francois Bayrou, 55, to catch up from behind to become the "third man" of the campaign. He has drawn support from both left and right with his promise to unite the squabbling parties in a government of national unity.
His straight-talking, down-to-earth reputation as a man with rural roots who understands countryside issues - as well as being a former teacher and writer in a country which still has deep respect for intellectuals - has given him a broad appeal, though he has yet to convince the French that voting for him in the first round is not a wasted vote.
And just behind Mr Bayrou lurks far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, 78, who - whatever his own result in this first round - has had the satisfaction of seeing his policies taken up by the mainstream.
The issues of security, immigration and the need to preserve "French identity" have all become central to Mr Sarkozy's and Ms Royal's campaigns, thanks also to the rioting of 2005 which has intensified French fears about crime and insecurity.
The other issue playing into the campaign is the public's deep disillusionment with politicians and their promises and the Parisian elite. That disillusionment is driving up support for both Mr Bayrou and Mr Le Pen, who are seen as "outsiders" despite their long sojourn on the political stage.
Hard choice
So many political pledges have indeed been broken over the past decades - stymied by the French themselves, and the trade unions, which summon up crowds onto the streets to protest against the slightest hint of reform to France's generous welfare state. It is a system the nation can no longer afford, as its ageing population sends on the bill to the next, increasingly resentful generation, aware that France must change, yet unwilling to let it do so.
Across the country, many sigh that France is simply ungovernable. And even at this stage, few pundits or politicians are willing to bet on Sunday's results. The 2002 elections and the 2005 referendum on the EU constitution showed that opinion polls can be unreliable - if voters do not tell pollsters the truth.
In the past that has led to Mr Le Pen's support being consistently underestimated, though perhaps his increasing "acceptability" after going through to the second round in 2002 has brought more Le Pen supporters out into the open.
Yet it has also made many French aware of the dangers of splitting the vote by choosing minority far-left parties, or of failing to vote altogether, as Socialist supporters did much to their shame in 2002.
As the French enter the curtained-off polling booths this Sunday, some may not have made up their minds.
Even today, two days ahead of polling day, one-third of voters are still hesitating over whether they are ready for radical but painful reform under Nicolas Sarkozy, a return to the new/old left under Segolene Royal, a gamble on the new centre with Francois Bayrou or an expression of fear and disdain for the political establishment with Jean-Marie Le Pen.

But more than ever have registered to vote, and all those factors make this one of the most unpredictable races in French election history.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

NIGERIA LEADER ADMITS POLL FLAWS !

President Obasanjo said no election was perfect. Nigeria's president has admitted there were flaws in last week's state polls and urged election officials to prevent rigging in the presidential vote.
"The world is watching us and we cannot afford to disappoint ourselves, our friends and the world," outgoing leader Olusegun Obasanjo said in a speech.
The two main opposition presidential candidates say they will contest Saturday's polls despite fraud fears.
Atiku Abubakar said he would take part only so he could challenge the result.

NIGERIAN ELECTION 21 APRIL
60m registered voters
120,000 ballot boxes
360 House of Representative seats to be elected
109 Senate seats to be elected
24 presidential candidates
Main contenders:
Atiku Abubakar for the AC, 60 years old
Muhammadu Buhari, ANPP, 64
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, PDP, 55
Polls open at 0800 (local time) and close at 1500
To avoid a run-off, a candidate needs the highest number of votes overall and at least 25% of votes in 24 of the 36 states.

Candidates' profiles
Send us your comments

"You have to participate to challenge the wrongdoings in the courts," Vice-President Abubakar, who is standing for the opposition Action Congress, told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.
The All Nigeria People's Party's Muhammadu Buhari also confirmed he would take part.
He denied that the opposition's failure to field a single candidate would mean victory for the ruling People's Democratic Party.
"It hasn't handed it over. If that is your assumption, it is the wrong assumption," he said.
The opposition says the Independent National Election Commission (Inec) should be disbanded, saying it is biased in favour of the PDP.
'Non-credible elections'
Friday has been declared a surprise public holiday, to allow people time to travel before the vote on Saturday.
The BBC's Peter Okwoche in Port Harcourt says many people would have turned up to work to find their offices closed, as the announcement came late on Thursday night.

The more thugs you have, the more votes you have
Sha'aya'u Aminu, 23, student

Voters' views

During his national address, Mr Obasanjo said no election could be regarded as perfect, but said progress had been made in Nigeria since elections in 1959.
"There have been allegations of malpractices, of multiple voting, ballot-box snatching, coalition manipulation, intimidation, threats and use of violence. All these must be roundly condemned no matter who engaged in them," he said.
"I appeal to our local and international observers to understand some of our limitations as a complex developing nation and not to exaggerate the negative and thereby throw out the baby with the bath water."
After last weekend's vote, Nigerian observers said results from a third of the states should be annulled and there is concern about the credibility of Saturday's polls.
The deputy head of the European Union observer mission has asked Inec to take urgent action.
"I fear that if they don't put some of these things in place, then there is a danger that there will be not only non-credible elections on Saturday but there won't be secure elections and that there could be resulting violence," Graham Elson said.
Nigeria is Africa's most populous country and is one of the world's biggest oil producers.
But despite the country's huge oil wealth, tens of millions live in poverty without basic amenities.
The BBC's Alex Last says Nigeria is of key strategic interest to both the West and the growing economies of the East.
He says it matters who wins and whether they are a credible leader.
The danger is a failed election simply moves Nigeria further down the road to instability, our reporter says.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

U.N. ACCUSES SUDAN OVER WEAPONS !

At least 2.4 million people have been displaced by the Darfur conflict. The Sudanese government has been accused of violating a UN arms embargo by flying weapons into Darfur in breach of UN Security Council resolutions.
A UN report says Sudan painted aircraft white to make them look like UN planes.
Sudan's envoy to the UN, Abdel Mahmood Abdel Haleem, said the allegations were "a lie" and that military assets were simply being moved around the country.
The US and the UK will later begin talks with other Security Council members on a new resolution on Darfur.
Abdel Mahmood Abdel Haleem told the BBC: "According to the comprehensive peace agreement signed [after the civil war in the South] between the Sudan government and the SPLM, we have to move our military assets and aircraft and all assets from the South to other regions in the country.

UN DARFUR PLAN

Phase 1 - UN financial backing for AU mission
Phase 2 - UN sends logistical and military support
Phase 3 - UN takes joint command of hybrid force.

"We are moving these military assets to their respective places. We are not using these aircraft for any military function in Darfur."
But a New York Times journalist who has seen a leaked copy of the UN report says there is no doubt about the evidence.
"One thing is pictures that appeared with the report that we actually published in the New York Times today," Warren Hoge told the BBC World Service's World Today programme.
"There are very clear pictures of planes painted white, and also with the UN designation on the left-hand wing of one of the planes. And also a good deal of testimony from the investigators who compiled the report.
"It's the credibility of the United Nations versus the credibility of the Sudanese authorities - and I think on that basis the United Nations report looks pretty good."
The report was compiled by a five-person panel for the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against Sudan.
US sanctions warning
US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte ended his tour of Sudan and its neighbours on Wednesday, without meeting Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Mr Negroponte visited Sudan, Libya, Chad and Mauritania, hoping to increase pressure on Sudan to let more UN peacekeepers into Darfur.
President George W Bush has said he wants tougher sanctions if Khartoum did not accept 20,000 UN peacekeepers being sent to the region, a move opposed by Russia and China.
Mr Bush said he was giving UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon one last chance to reach a diplomatic solution.
Sudan said earlier this week it would allow 3,000 UN troops into Darfur to support 7,000 African Union troops, but has not agreed to a much larger force.
The four-year Darfur conflict between rebels and pro-government Arab militia has seen more than 200,000 deaths and at least 2.4 million displaced.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

MOTION TO STRIP MUGABE OF DEGREE !

Robert Mugabe has been criticised for his rule of Zimbabwe. A campaign has been launched at Westminster to remove an honorary degree presented to Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe by Edinburgh University.
The degree was handed out 23 years ago for "services to education in Africa".
Nigel Griffiths, a former Labour minister, said he wanted it "swiftly withdrawn" in protest over Mr Mugabe's "oppressive and brutal regime".
A Commons motion, tabled by the former Edinburgh University student, expressed his "dismay" at the president.
He said Mr Mugabe had "reduced his people to poverty, a state of terror, and the brutal suppression of his political opponents".
The university's position is becoming increasingly untenable and he should indeed be stripped of the degree
Mark BallardEdinburgh University's rector,
Zimbabwe has the world's highest annual rate of inflation - 1,700% - and only one person in five is in full-time work.
Nigel Griffiths is a close ally of Gordon Brown, who was rector at the university while also a student.
The motion has been signed by fellow Labour MP Kate Hoey.
It was also supported by Edinburgh University's rector, Mark Ballard.
He said: "The university's position is becoming increasingly untenable and he should indeed be stripped of the degree.
"Members of the Alumni Association are gravely concerned at what this is doing to the reputation of the university - the university must act."
An Edinburgh University spokesman said: "The university is acutely aware of ongoing developments in Zimbabwe and the issue of Robert Mugabe's honorary degree remains under active review."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

IRAN NUCLEAR OPERATIONS CONFIRMED !

Iran plans to build 50,000 centrifuges at Natanz. Iran has assembled 1,300 centrifuges at its Natanz nuclear plant and has begun the process of enriching uranium, the UN nuclear watchdog has confirmed.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said eight cascades of centrifuges, the machines that spin uranium gas into enriched material, were now operating.
Earlier this month Iran's president said Natanz was ready to enrich uranium on an industrial-scale.
The West suspects Iran of seeking atomic weapons, a charge Iran denies.
Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only.
Inspections continuing
The confidential three-paragraph letter was written by the director general of the IAEA, Olli Heinonen.
It confirmed the findings of a team of IAEA inspectors who conducted a routine "design information verification" mission to Natanz in the past week.
Those inspectors were informed that Iran was now operating 1,312 centrifuges at Natanz, the letter said.
An undefined quantity of uranium gas was being fed into the centrifuges, the letter added.
The disclosure of the inspectors' findings comes after the head of the IAEA, Mohammed ElBaradei, downplayed Iran's claim that it was beginning industrial-scale production.
Speaking in Saudi Arabia last week, Mr ElBaradei said Iran would need thousands of centrifuges, but had only hundreds operating at present.
He also said that Iran would not be able to produce the highly enriched uranium needed for a nuclear bomb as long as it remained under the supervision of IAEA inspectors.
The UN Security Council has imposed a package of sanctions on Iran over its refusal to cease enriching uranium, which some Western countries fear could be part of a secret nuclear weapons programme.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

AUSTRALIA AND U.S. TO SWOP REFUGEES!

Australia has a camp for asylum seekers in Nauru. Australia and the United States have announced a plan to swap up to 200 asylum seekers every year.
Migrants held by the US in Guantanamo Bay will be resettled in Australia, while Canberra will send people held in its offshore detention camps to the US.
The move is aimed at deterring would-be refugees by preventing them from reaching their destination of choice.
But critics say the plan could backfire on Canberra, as many refugees around the world are hoping to get to America.
Atlantic exchange
The first asylum seekers to be exchanged are likely to be 83 Sri Lankans and eight Burmese who are being held in Australia's off-shore detention centre on the tiny Pacific island of Nauru.
If they qualify as genuine refugees, they could soon be resettled somewhere in the US.
In return, the Americans will be allowed to send Cuban and Haitian detainees held at Guantanamo Bay (the naval base housing asylum seekers, rather than the prison) to Australia.

Mr Howard insisted the plan would deter illegal migrants. Both Canberra and Washington insist the move will deter illegal migrants.
The hope is that potential refugees might think again about trying to get to the US if there was a chance they could end up in a faraway place like Australia, and vice versa.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard insisted the plan would also deter people smugglers.
"The thing that discourages people from people smuggling is the fact that we make it very plain that people will not be allowed to reach the Australian mainland," Mr Howard told local media.
But critics believe that the plan could backfire on the Australians, by encouraging asylum seekers from Asia and the Middle East who want to build a new life in the US.

An immigration spokesman for the Australian opposition Labor Party, Tony Burke, said the new policy would therefore mean even more boat people arriving on the shores of Australia.
"If you are in one of the refugee camps around the world, there is no more attractive destination than to think you can get a ticket to the USA," Mr Burke said.
"What John Howard is doing is saying to the people around the world: if you want to get to the US, the way to it is to hop on a boat and go to [Australia's] Christmas Island."
Australia has often been criticised by human rights groups for the uncompromising stance it takes on asylum seekers.
Under a policy introduced in 2001, would-be migrants are now intercepted at sea, and are routinely sent to off-shore processing camps in the South Pacific where their refugee applications are assessed.
The tactic is designed to ensure they never set foot on the Australian mainland.
Even if they are deemed genuine refugees, efforts are made to find a third country willing to accept them, although in practice this often fails and they are eventually accepted into Australia.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

WASHINGTON DIARY : VIRGINIA SHOOTINGS !

Washington diary: Virginia shootings
By Matt Frei BBC News, Washington.

America has witnessed at least 19 fatal school shootings in the last decade.

Police say the university's size made it difficult to "lock down. "What is it that makes men, and in some cases boys get up in the morning, slaughter innocent civilians in a place of learning and then end their own lives?
The question pursued us on our way to Virginia Tech. Outside Washington the headquarters of the NRA - the National Rifle Association - glints at passing cars.
The lights were on in many of the offices. Was this usual? Or were they busy working on damage control for the inevitable criticism?
Another 100 miles further down the Interstate you enter the Bible Belt. Periodically giant illuminated crucifixes jostle for attention with huge billboards advertising injury lawyers and fast-food outlets. Just before the city of Roanake there is a Wal-Mart. "Guns for sale all year round", it boasts, "except on Xmas Day".
'Aftermath'
We were in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains only a few miles from the West Virginia border. It was bitterly cold. The expectant dishes of a phalanx of satellite trucks pointed silently at the stars. The stage was set for the pageantry of grief and healing that follows every tragedy of this kind.

One teacher described Cho Seung-Hui as a deeply disturbed individual. The aftermath of every school shooting may have produced its own ritual, but every tragedy is different and full of baffling details. In Pennsylvania last October, when a milkman killed five girls execution style in a village school the Amish world of horse drawn buggies, straw hats and militant pacifism collided with modern gun violence, visited upon innocent children by a friendly neighbour.
In Virginia Tech, an institution devoted to learning and clarity of thought was brutalised by the murky mind of a painfully shy Asian American. As he rampaged from the Maths class to the Engineering Class, from German to French he may have felt like Rambo but he still looked like the quintessential science geek.
The stereotype doesn't fit. And as we discovered nor does the location. The campus of Virginia Tech sprawls across the rolling landscape. It is huge. The university has 100 buildings. It boasts its own airport and power station. Size is one of the reasons why the police say that they couldn't easily "lock down" a virtual city that is home to almost 26,000 students.
But the place is also surprisingly beautiful. The college buildings are tastefully built in beige quarried rock. The fluorescent green lawns are meticulously manicured.
A lot of money has clearly been well spent. A golf course snakes between half a dozen artificial lakes and the students we spoke to were impeccably polite, despite our intrusions into their grief. In short, Virginia Tech is the kind of university you would want to send your daughter or son to.
Right to bear arms
On the sports field between the hall of residence where Cho Seung-Hui shot his first two victims and the Norris Hall where he gunned down the remaining 30, I spotted Chris Mucklow, a 22-year-old sociology student who loved soccer. He was sitting by himself and crying silently. I asked him, whether he thought there should be stricter laws against gun ownership. "More background checks, absolutely," he replied. "But I wish I had had a gun that day. I wish some of the professors had had guns on them. They could have taken the shooter down."
It was an opinion I heard from many students at Virginia Tech and it goes beyond the abstract debate about the "right to bear arms", enshrined in the Constitution. It is about self defence in the face of a rampaging menace.
If Professor Liviu Librescu, the 76-year-old Holocaust survivor who died wedging himself against the door to stop the gunman from killing his students, had had a weapon, perhaps he would he alive today.
But it strikes me that this is a reaction rather than a solution. "You can't control guns with more guns for chrissake". That's how Brendan Quirk, an engineering student who watched as the victims jumped from the second story windows of Norris Hall put it.
If the state of Virginia had been obliged to conduct a thorough background check and seek references before granting Cho the right to bear arms, they might have discovered what his teacher Lucinda Roy knew from his writings: that he was a deeply disturbed individual who fantasised in his creative writing exercises about shooting people in the face - first one eye, then the other.
Debate
Would John Markell, the owner of the Roanoke firearms shop really have wanted to sell Cho the 9mm Glock if he had read some of these pages? After all four guns sold from his shop had already been reportedly involved in other homicides.

Mr Bush said it was impossible to make sense of such violence. Yes, this tragedy has sparked a debate about gun control but mostly outside America. Even Australian Prime Minister John Howard, that stalwart friend of George W Bush, was quick to blame "the US gun culture".
But on Capitol Hill, the Democrats, who have sunk their teeth into every other aspect of the administration, have remained largely silent on the issue. Gun control puts voters off in swing states, their research has discovered. Best to say little about it especially with an election approaching.
Remember Howard Dean, the country doctor turned governor, turned Presidential candidate, turned Chairman of the Democratic Party? He railed against George W Bush "shooting from the hip" but he never really spoke out for gun control. Why? Because his liberal home state of Vermont hates fast-food as much as it likes hunting.
Despite this week's bloodbath there will be no overwhelming demand for gun control in this country. Like evangelical Christianity, baseball and a love of Pumpkin Pie it is just one of those things that separates Europeans from Americans.
Will the next shooting take place at another university, a high school, a nursery or a secretarial college?
In our hotel they were handing out ribbons made by the staff, displaying the colours of Virginia Tech. Orange and red. It was a touching gesture. On campus thousands of students gathered with candles in hand to commemorate the dead.
Earlier in the day they had sat in silence in the football stadium to listen to President Bush explain that the victims found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. America is at its most impressive when it grieves and remembers. But will the soul-searching ever produce legislation and will it make schools safer?

BBC NEWS REPORT.

HIV DRUGS 'STILL DENIED TO MANY' !

Antiretroviral drugs can keep HIV in check. Just 28% of poor people with HIV have access to the antiretroviral drugs that could save their lives, a study shows.
The report is published by the World Health Organization, UNAids and Unicef.
It warned many obstacles remain to meeting the United Nations' target of universal access to HIV/Aids prevention and care programmes by 2010.
However, the report said "substantial, ongoing progress" had been made towards improving treatment and diagnosis of people with HIV.
There is still a long way to go
Dr Peter Piotexecutive director, UNAids
Margaret Chan, WHO director general, said: "We need ambitious national programmes, much greater global mobilisation and increased accountability if we are going to succeed."
Big improvement
The report found that by the end of 2006, 2,015,000 people in low and middle-income countries were receiving antiretroviral drugs to control their HIV infection - a 54% increase in one year.
However, it is estimated that 7.1 million people in those countries could benefit from the drugs.
It also falls short of the WHO aim of getting antiretrovirals to 3 million needy people by the end of 2005.
The report found that 1.3 million HIV patients in sub-Saharan Africa are now receiving the drugs.
This represents a coverage rate in the area of 28% - compared with just 2% in 2003.
The lowest access rate - just 6% - was in the North Africa and Middle East region.
Only 11% of pregnant women with HIV are getting drugs that could prevent them passing the virus to their baby.
The report calls for prevention of mother-to-child transmission to be made a top priority.
Drug costs
Front-line drug prices in the world's poorer countries fell by up to 20% last year, meaning some drugs are now less than half the price they were in 2003.
The drop in prices has been put down to competition from manufacturers of generic drugs, and political pressure from the international community.
However, the report warns that second-line drugs - the next option if first-line alternatives have limited effect - are still "unaffordably high" in these countries.
Pharmaceutical companies have previously argued that antiretroviral drugs were too complex for poor countries which often lack a sophisticated medical infrastructure.
But the report shows that patients in these countries are responding just as well to the drugs as their peers in the developed world.
Dr Peter Piot, executive director of UNAids, said: "The significant progress outlined in this report in scaling up access to treatment is a positive step forward for many countries in achieving their ambitious goals of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.
"However new data in the report also shows that there is still a long way to go, particularly in the widespread provision of treatment to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV, which remains one of the simplest and cheapest proven prevention methods available."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

KENYAN ADS MOVE 'ATTACK ON PRESS' !

The Standard has been sharply critical of President Kibaki. The Kenyan government has stopped advertising in the oldest independent daily, following a report linking a minister with an assassination plot.
The Standard newspaper had published a report, alleging a minister hired two Armenian hit men to assassinate former President Daniel Moi's son.
Managing Editor Chaacha Mwita called the directive to pull adverts a government attack on independent media.
But Security Minister John Michuki said the paper was waging war against him.
The media group has been critical of President Mwai Kibaki's handling of recent corruption scandals.
Last year armed masked policemen shut down the Standard newspaper's printing press and switched off its television channel, KTN, for allegedly inciting ethnic hatred.
"As a media group we are criticising the security minister on the basis of facts and are not serving any personal interests," Mr Mwita told the BBC News website.
Mr Mwita and other directors of the media house were quizzed by the police for several hours on Tuesday over the alleged assassination plot.
"We have given the police the tape which has recordings of the confession by one of the Artur brothers, who was approached to assassinate Mr Gideon Moi. We are innocent," Mr Mwita said.
The infamous Armenian brothers were deported by the government last year after a raid at the residence uncovered weapons and fake vehicle number plates.
The two Artur brothers are said to be linked to influential people in President Kibaki's government.
An email availed to us shows the directive for government departments to withdraw advertisements from the newspaper and television station had been issued by the ministry of public service.
"Please cancel all Standard groups ads with immediate effect. This is a directive from the public service ministry to the Kenya Power and lighting Company," the email from a leading advertising agency in Nairobi read in part.
Opposition politicians and diplomats have criticised the move by the government and warned it against suppressing the independent press in Kenya.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

NIGERIAN ARMY ATTACKS ISLAMISTS !

Twelve policemen and a civilian were killed in the Kano attack. Some 25 Islamic militants have been killed in an offensive near the city of Kano in Nigeria's north, the army says.
Militants held an area after attacking a police station on Tuesday. Nine Islamists have been captured, as well as a quantity of arms, the army says.
Police say the militants came to avenge the assassination of a radical Islamic cleric shot dead last Friday.
The unrest adds to rising tension, with opposition parties threatening to boycott Saturday's presidential polls.
It is unclear how many militants are still at large.

See state results

In a statement on Tuesday night, 18 of the main parties demanded that the elections on Saturday be delayed and threatened a boycott unless several conditions were met.
We don't know the people. We don't even know where they came from -Panshekara resident

Mystery attackers in Kano

"We don't know the people. We don't even know where they came from," a Kano man told the BBC.
Their demands include the annulment of last weekend's state polls described by the opposition as a "sham", and the disbanding of the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec).
However, Inec lawyer Joe-Kyari Gagzama said the election could not legally be delayed after a high court ruling two weeks ago.
"There's no appeal against that judgement."
He also said the tenure of most of those in office is expiring on 29 May and he said Nigerians would be better focusing on security and other pressing issues rather than the polls.
Fleeing
The BBC's Alex Last in Panshekara where Islamists, known as the Taleban, hold an area of the town, says heavy shooting started at dawn and residents began fleeing.

KEY STATE RESULTS
Lagos: AC
Katsina: PDP
Rivers: PDP
Kano: ANPP
Imo: Postponed

Election unease
In pictures: State polls
Difficult day at polls

The army cordoned off the area and engaged heavily armed Islamic militants holed up near the nearby waterworks.
The militants arrived in the area on Tuesday and attacked a police station killing 13 people.
Police and residents say they number up to 300, including women and children.
Our correspondent says it is very rare for this kind of attack to take place in northern Nigeria, but it is not unprecedented.
A few years ago, radical students from a university in north-eastern Nigeria took to the bush, called themselves the Taleban and attacked several police stations.
In the end, many were killed by the army.
But the fact is whoever these militants are, this incident just adds to the feeling of insecurity in a country already wracked by political turmoil over disputed elections, our reporter says.
Protest calls
The opposition parties called for a postponement of Saturday's presidential elections after lengthy talks in the capital, Abuja.

President Obasanjo is standing down after two terms
In the statement, they demanded the "total voiding" of the 14 April state elections and the complete disbandment and reconstitution of Inec.
Nigeria's governing People's Democratic Party (PDP) has won 26 of the 33 states declared so far.
The opposition parties also urged Nigerians to "protest in a non-violent manner these sham elections so far held, and to resist further elections under the current structure".
The opposition said the electoral commission was under the control of outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The opposition coalition includes Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and former military head of state Muhammadu Buhari.
They are regarded as the main challengers to Umaru Yar'Adua - the governing party's presidential candidate.
Apart from attempting to discredit the elections, many observers question what the opposition would achieve by boycotting.
There has been a worrying spate of violence, including killings, in the run-up to the polls.
Many Nigerians fear further violence on Saturday, which should lead to the first handover of power in Africa's most populous nation from one civilian to another.
President Obasanjo is standing down after two terms in office.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

MUGABE BLAMES GREED FOR COLLAPSE !

Mr Mugabe said price hikes were unjustified. Zimbabwe's leader has blamed "unbridled greed" in the business sector and "saboteurs" for the country's economic woes during independence celebrations.
President Robert Mugabe, who has been heavily criticised for his brutal crackdown of the opposition, also defended his government's stance.
"Misguided opposition elements [have tried] to create a state of anarchy through an orgy of violence," he said.
Zimbabwe has the world's highest annual rate of inflation and 80% unemployment.
'No justification'
"The economy has continued to be buffeted by seemingly unending waves of price hikes, largely prompted by both unbridled greed amongst some of our business persons and by the strategy of our saboteurs," the 83-year-old president told a packed stadium in the capital, Harare.
We will never hesitate to deal firmly with those elements who are bent on fomenting anarchy and criminal activities -President Robert Mugabe.

Zimbabwe's birthday gloom
Son of independence
Send us your comments

"This pace of increases in prices of basic commodities have largely been without justification."
Economists estimate that the country's inflation rate now tops 2,000% and only one person in five is in full-time work.
Mr Mugabe was giving his address at the same stadium where Zimbabwe's independence celebrations were held in 1980.
He reminded his audience of the day 27 years ago when British colonial rule ended with the lowering of the flag by Prince Charles.

Crowds turned out see celebratory marches and speeches.
"Pulling down colonialism, British colonialism, which had settled here, oppressed us for nearly a century," he said.
He also repeated accusations that some members of the opposition were seeking anarchy.
"We will never hesitate to deal firmly with those elements who are bent on fomenting anarchy and criminal activities," he said.
Last month, a prayer meeting in the capital, Harare, attended by opposition leaders and activists was broken up by police, leaving two people dead.
Scores of activists, including Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai, were arrested and assaulted in police custody.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

LIVING IN MUGABE'S ZIMBABWE !

Zimbabwean Herbert is 27 years old - born in 1980 when his nation became independent. Talking to the BBC News website by telephone, he reflected on the ups and downs of living under President Robert Mugabe.

Zimbabwe gained its independence from Britain 27 years ago I am not excited about the independence anniversary celebrations.
Why should I be?
I have nothing to celebrate.
I am buying bread at 6,000 Zimbabwean dollars ($0.34 at current black market exchange rate) for a loaf and two litres of cooking oil for 120,000 Zimbabwean dollars ($6.70).
I was only taking 500,000 Zimbabwean dollars ($28) home a month. But even that is no more. As of yesterday, I was laid off from my clerical job.
And now, because this is Zimbabwe, I know that I am not going to get another job.
I live in a rented flat with my wife and family and so I am still thinking of what I can do to carry on living and paying the rent. Maybe I will sell some of my furniture.
The whole Zimbabwe situation is not pleasing at the moment. Not at all. Everything costs so much, most have so little and everywhere there are secret police. We are not free anymore.
I was born in Mutare [eastern city on border with neighbouring Mozambique] but moved to Harare a few years back to find work after my parents passed away.
I remember how beautiful our country was in the 80s.
Finding gold
My gran used to give me 50 Zimbabwean cents to go buy bread, butter and milk - all that for so little! It was easy to live well.
Mugabe is already a hero and he always will be
And when we were at junior school, five cents in your pocket could get you sweets to last the whole week. I tell you, finding a five cent piece on the pavement was like finding gold!
Now if you see a 1,000 Zimbabwean dollar note on the floor, you just keep walking. You don't stop. It is nothing - no-one will even pick it up.
Back then, after independence, we all loved President Mugabe. But now we don't. The only ones that do are those who benefit from his rule.
I don't mind if Zanu-PF stays as the ruling party, I really don't. I just want there to be change at the top.
Mugabe is already a hero and he always will be but there is nothing more for him to do. He must just step down.
When he was prime minister everything was fine.
But when his first wife, Sally, died, he started going the other way. That women loved our country - she did so much for us.
A lot has changed. And it all started then.
Now, our country is dead. I really want a better Zimbabwe.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

EGYPT ANCHORWOMEN BATTLE FOR HIJAB !

Egypt anchorwomen battle for hijab
By Ranyah Sabry BBC News, Cairo

Ghada insists she has no political agenda by wanting to wear the veil. The last four years in the lives of TV presenters Hala El Malki and Ghada El Tawil have been a continuous struggle brought about by their employers' refusal to implement two court verdicts.
It all started in 2002 when the two presenters decided to wear the hijab head covering worn by many Muslim women.
But their employers objected and they were excluded from appearing on the state-run TV station where they work.
Believing that they had a right to appear on the screen the TV anchors took their case to the civil court. The court ruled in their favour and ordered they be returned to the screen in 2003.
When the state TV station refused to comply with the ruling, the two presenters went to the state court which also ruled in their favour in 2005. But again the station did not comply.
But last month, when they tried to force the station to abide by the earlier rulings, they were rebuffed, with the court saying it had already dealt with the case.
Dress code
The two anchorwomen now want to make their case an international affair, and are seeking out other jurisdictions through which they can fight for their rights.
"We will go as far as we have to, it is our right to wear the veil," Ghada El Tawil told the BBC.

Many Egyptian women choose to wear the veil in public. She says some 75% of Muslim women in Egypt wear the hijab and so the presenters are not trying to do anything out of the ordinary and there is certainly no political agenda.
"If I was a doctor or a university professor there would be no problem about me wearing a hijab on television, so why can't I do it reading the news," she said.
Human rights organisations say the presenters have a right to wear the veil in exercise of their personal freedom.
But there is some opposition on the streets of Cairo about whether veiled anchorwomen would be a good thing on Egyptian TV.
"I don't like to see a presenter with a veil. Actually I hate to see my society going this direction. It is not Egypt, it is not my country, it is not my Egypt," said one Cairo resident.
"This is a dress code they should stick to. If these anchors insist on the veil then she has to choose another job. Taking it to the international court will not solve anything," said another.
During the past four years more than 30 female anchors working in state TV are thought to have chosen the veil at the expense of their jobs.
But if these two pioneers, Ms Malki and Ms Tawil, eventually return to the screen with their hijabs, the state broadcaster could find many others wanting to follow their example.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

BRAZIL'S HOMELESS AND LANDLESS UNITE !

Brazil's homeless and landless unite
By Gary Duffy BBC News, Sao Paulo.

Prestes Maia in Sao Paulo has been 'occupied' by homeless since 2002. Brazil's landless and homeless movements have been on the march in April, bringing renewed attention to their demands in a month of protests.
In the countryside, protest action is led by the controversial and better known organisation of landless workers, MST, or Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra.
Critics say not all its members are rural workers, and condemn its tactics of illegally occupying land, but it remains one of the best organised social movements in Latin America.
In a typical headline grabbing move, its activists invaded the headquarters of the government's land reform agency to make a point about what they see as the slow pace of reform.
Crammed inside
In cities like Sao Paulo, a variety of groups are involved - including the organisation of "roofless" or homeless, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Teto.
In the last fortnight this group, among others, has been organising renewed illegal occupations or invasions of empty buildings in Sao Paulo.
In one such building - 460 families who live there are crammed into small rooms on 22 floors.
Prestes Maia has been occupied since 2002, but once again this week the residents have been living with the threat of eviction.
That immediate threat appears to have been lifted - due it seems, to an intervention by the Lula government, and alternative accommodation is being sought for the residents.
Billons of dollars of government funding towards housing and sanitation in Brazil is now due, money that comes from the government's main development plan, offering promise for the future.
For the residents of Prestes Maia, it cannot come soon enough.
Keeping afloat
As you make your way up the stairs, the walls are potted with holes, water escapes from leaking pipes and rusty window frames and exposed electrical cables are a further sign of decay.
I consider here my home, it's not what you would dream of - there is not even proper walls...Prestes Maia is a big struggle, one to get through every day -MariaPrestes, Maia resident.

In pictures: Prestes Maia

But as you reach floor after floor you find scores of families trying to eke out an existence, determined to maintain some dignity. Several floors below, a free library is the only bright spot where the children can escape.
Maria told us: "I consider here my home, it's not what you would dream of - there is not even proper walls... Prestes Maia is a big struggle, one to get through every day."
At a rally at Itapecerica da Serra, on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, where homeless groups have invaded land and set up a huge sprawling tent city, homeless groups and the MST shared a platform.
They deny they are running a joint campaign, but can see benefits in taking action at the same time.
"We are fighting for the same objectives, because each one has specific objectives, but in essence we are fighting the same enemies... and demanding from the federal and state governments answers to the problems of the majority of the Brazilian people," says Gilmar Mauro of the MST.
In the MST there is also growing impatience with the government, which in turn would argue that much has been done for the landless in Brazil. It points to land that has been distributed to almost 400,000 families.
But there are signs that the MST is going to make plain its irritation with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, an old friend of the landless movement.
Its leaders say Lula's government has been too timid, too slow to take on the big landowners.
Over the next few months the protest could get personal.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

MUGABE CRITIC IN 'PROPHETIC ROLE' !

Archbishop Ncube says Zimbabweans are desperate. Zimbabwean Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube says he accepts that his opposition to Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe may cost him his life.
"The church has a prophetic role to speak the truth when no-one else dares to," the Archbishop of Bulawayo told the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Meanwhile, a crackdown on aid groups suspected of opposing the president has begun, state media reports.
All non-governmental organisations must now reapply for their licences.
Last month, the UN said that 1.4m Zimbabweans would need food aid this year, as harvests were only due to meet one-third of the country's requirements.
Mr Mugabe blames the worsening economic crisis on a Western plot to remove him from power.
Archbishop called for mass street protests in March and said people must be prepared to stand in front of "blazing guns" to force Mr Mugabe from power.
Earlier this month, a two-day strike called by trade unions in protest about the worsening economic crisis was poorly observed.
Zimbabwe has the world's highest annual rate of inflation - 1,700% - and only one person in five is in full-time work.
Impatience
"Mugabe is mad for power and he will cling to it even if it means destroying the economy and destroying Zimbabwe," Archbishop Ncube said.
During the Gukurahundi campaign, Pius Ncube witnessed the suffering and was desperate to speak out.

Profile: Turbulent archbishop

As Zimbabwe marks 27 years of independence on Wednesday, the archbishop said many people are too depressed to go on living.
"Mugabe is an evil man, a bully and a murderer. I will not be bullied or bought by him.
"I accept that it may mean that I lose my life."
The BBC's Grant Ferrett says the archbishop's impatience for change and defiance is a legacy of the Gukurahundi massacres of the 1980s, when Mr Mugabe attempted to stamp out potential threats to his new government.
An estimated 20,000 people were killed in Zimbabwe's southern Matabeleland region, most of them civilians.
As a young priest, he witnessed the suffering and was desperate to speak out, but his church superiors stopped him.
Now that he is in charge, the archbishop is determined not to watch in silence again, our reporter says.
'Mushrooming'
Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu ordered the NGO crackdown, saying some organisations were using relief activities as a cover for an opposition-led campaign to overthrow the government.
"Pro-opposition and Western organisations masquerading as relief agencies continue to mushroom," state radio quoted him as saying.
"The government has annulled the registration of all NGOs in order to screen out agents of imperialism from organisations working to uplift the wellbeing of the poor."
Last month, a prayer meeting in the capital, Harare, attended by opposition leaders and activists was broken up by police, leaving two people dead.
Scores of activists, including Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai, were arrested and assaulted in police custody.
Archbishop Ncube also accused other African leaders of failing to exert pressure on Mr Mugabe to relinquish power.
Southern African leaders have appointed South Africa President Thabo Mbeki to mediate between Mr Mugabe and the MDC party.
Over Easter, the country's bishops warned of a mass uprising unless free elections are held, in a letter pinned up in churches.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ANALYSIS: SADR RAISES MALIKI PRESSURE!

Analysis: Sadr raises Maliki pressure.
By Jim Muir BBC News, Baghdad

Mr Sadr himself has not appeared - the US says he is abroad. The decision by radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr to order his six ministers to quit the Iraqi government was not a surprising development.
Although electorally allied to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's own al-Daawa party and partners in the big Shia coalition which dominates government and parliament, the two sides had been increasingly at odds as the pressures in the country mount.
Nobody expects Mr Sadr's move to bring the government down. Nor did observers believe that was his intention.
Rather than leave the cabinet seats empty, he himself suggested that the six abandoned portfolios be given to non-partisan independents, and some of his aides urged that competent technocrats be appointed.
That gesture was welcomed in a statement from Prime Minister Maliki, who also said he appreciated the Sadr movement's support for the political process.
Huge protest
The prime minister owes his position to the firebrand young cleric, who tilted the balance in his favour in the internal voting within the Shia alliance that produced Mr Maliki as its candidate for the job early last year.

Hundreds of thousands attended the Najaf rally against the US. Mr Sadr's decision to withdraw from the government appears to have been triggered primarily by its failure to heed the big popular demonstration he called in Najaf a week earlier to demand a withdrawal of coalition forces.
Hundreds of thousands of people, mainly Shias, attended the demonstration, waving banners and chanting slogans calling for the Americans to leave. It passed off peacefully.
The Sadr movement's demand for a withdrawal timetable has been turned down by Mr Maliki, who said last week during a visit to Japan that the timing would depend on when the Iraqi forces were ready to take full responsibility for security nationwide - a position he reiterated in his reaction statement to the Sadrist pullout.
The Sadr bloc has 32 of the 275 seats in the current parliament, and intends to continue its activities there and in the Shia coalition, despite withdrawing from government.
Another member of the Shia coalition, the Fadhila party, announced early last month that it was pulling out of that alliance because of the government's poor performance and sectarian quota composition.
But only if other major factions such as the main Sunni bloc and Iyad Allawi's secular Iraqi List were also to walk out of government, would it be at risk of collapse.
Nonetheless, the Sadr movement's defection from cabinet is likely to increase the pressure on the embattled prime minister.
Positioning
Many ordinary Iraqis agree with his movement's assessment of the government's failure to provide services - another of the strictures cited in the pullout statements - as well as its demand for the withdrawal of foreign troops.
The US is unlikely to mourn the loss of the Sadrists from the Iraqi cabinet As the Najaf demonstration showed, the Sadrist movement enjoys strong grassroots support among the Shia masses, which make up 60% of the country's population.
That support is not likely to be diminished by the group's withdrawal from government.
By distancing himself and his followers from the government over the issue of the foreign troop presence, Mr Sadr increases the pressure on Mr Maliki to show that his policy of cooperating with the Americans is paying off.
The US is unlikely to mourn the loss of the Sadrists from the Iraqi cabinet, despite its general desire for the government to be as broad-based as possible.
Washington regards Moqtada Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia as an even bigger threat to Iraqi stability than the Sunni-based insurgency.
Out of sight
The Mehdi Army has been blamed for many of the sectarian revenge killings of Sunnis that erupted after the bombing of the Shia shrine at Samarra in February last year.

Sadrists want at timetable for withdrawing US troops from IraqSince the current security "surge" was launched by thousands of extra US and Iraqi troops in Baghdad over two months ago, Mr Sadr has dropped out of public sight.
The Americans believe he has taken refuge in neighbouring Iran. Some Iraqi officials say he is in Syria. His followers insist he is in Iraq, but he did not appear at the Najaf rally which he had called.
The Mehdi Army militia, which once virtually ran the huge Sadr City suburb in east Baghdad, has melted off the streets since the surge began.
But some of its fighters were engaged in several days of clashes last week with US and Iraqi troops in the town of Diwaniya, south of Baghdad.
They have also clashed several times recently with British forces at Basra in the south of the country. The degree of Mr Sadr's control over some elements of the Mehdi Army has been questioned.
Whatever the temporary fate of his militia fighters in one area or another, Moqtada Sadr's influence makes him one of the most significant players on the Iraqi stage, partly because of the mantle he has inherited from a revered clerical family.
That influence is unlikely to be historically diminished by his decision to pull out of the current Iraqi cabinet.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

BBC MAN'S 'KILLING ' NOT VERIFIED !

BBC staff have gathered for vigils at the time of the kidnap.
Thompson speech

The BBC says it still has no independent verification of a claim by a Palestinian militant group that it has killed reporter Alan Johnston.
The corporation said it was "highly concerned" for Mr Johnston's safety and reiterated calls for his release.
On Sunday, the previously unheard of Tawhid and Jihad brigades claimed it had executed Mr Johnston.
BBC colleagues have rallied for Mr Johnston, 44, who was abducted at gunpoint in Gaza City on 12 March.
His parents, Graham and Margaret, say they are desperately worried and have appealed for anyone with information about their son to make contact.

ALAN JOHNSTON

Born in Lindi, Tanzania, on 17 May 1962
BBC Kabul correspondent from 1997 to 1998
BBC Gaza correspondent from April 2004

Timeline: Alan Johnston

Journalists have rallied in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, in support of Mr Johnston, as public campaigns to secure his release continue.
Dozens of demonstrators held portraits of the journalist, who was seized at gunpoint in Gaza City on 12 March.
Others gathered outside the European Commission building in Brussels.
BBC rallies
BBC colleagues held a vigil at London's Television Centre, in Birmingham and at Bush House, home of the World Service.
The corporation's Director General Mark Thompson said the BBC was still seeking clarification of the reporter's condition.
He praised Mr Johnston's family, calling the wait for news "agonising" for them.
Earlier, in a statement, the BBC said it could not confirm the claims by the Tawhid and Jihad (Holy War and Unity) brigades, describing the story as a rumour without verification.

There have been worldwide calls for Alan Johnston's release. "We continue to be highly concerned for [Alan Johnston's] safety and are demanding urgent clarification from the Palestinian and British authorities," it said.
The Tawhid and Jihad brigades made its claim in an email to media organisations, linking Mr Johnston's purported execution to the plight of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
A spokesman for UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said the government was investigating the reports.
"We are working closely with the Palestinian Authority and are urgently seeking information from them and other sources," he said.
'Worrying time'
In the latest of almost daily demonstrations in the wake of Mr Johnston's abduction, journalists gathered outside the Lebanese Press Syndicate building in Beirut to press for his release.
It's very important to show our solidarity with any colleague that's harmed because of his job -
Diana MoukalledLebanese TV reporter.

"We would like to appeal today to whoever is holding [Alan Johnston] to release him today unharmed," the BBC's Beirut correspondent, Kim Ghattas, told media.
Our correspondent said Mr Johnston had continued to do his job professionally, despite the risks.
But, more than a month since his abduction, there was concern about Mr Johnston's mental health and physical state, she said.
Another demonstrator, Lebanese TV reporter Diana Moukalled, said it was very important "to show our solidarity with any colleague that's harmed because of his job".
Earlier, Mr Johnston's parents Graham and Margaret Johnston issued a statement, saying it was a "desperately worrying time".
They added: "We make a heartfelt appeal to anyone who may have knowledge of Alan's situation and well-being to contact the authorities in Gaza."
Mr Johnston, from Scotland, joined the BBC World Service in 1991 and has spent eight of the last 16 years as a correspondent, including periods in Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.
He has lived and worked in Gaza for three years and was the only Western reporter permanently based in the often violent and lawless territory.
His posting in Gaza had been due to end in late March.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

Q & A : ZIMBABWE MELTDOWN !

President Mugabe blames Zimbabwe's problems on the west. Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was among scores of activists severely assaulted in police custody in March.
President Robert Mugabe, who wants to contest elections due next year, says they "deserved" their treatment.
What is life like in Zimbabwe?
Pretty terrible for most people. Many factories and other employers have closed as the economy has gone from bad to worse.
Most of the population is trying to feed itself by growing food but the rains have not been good and hundreds of thousands are going hungry.
Prices are rising by the day. Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate is 1,700% - the highest in the world.
Basic items such as bread, sugar, petrol are often not available in local shops.
What prompted the crisis?
Just about the only thing that all sides agree on in Zimbabwe is that land is at the heart of the problems.
The opposition says that Mr Mugabe's seizure of most white-owned farms since 2000 has wrecked what was once one of Africa's most developed economies.
Mr Mugabe says the redistribution was needed to make land ownership more equitable following the colonial era.
He says that western powers have sabotaged Zimbabwe's economy because they want to drive him from power.
So is Mr Mugabe in trouble?
Some say it could be the beginning of the end - but that has been said many times in recent years.

Mr Tsvangirai has been arrested several times. It is possible that Mr Mugabe's position has been weakened by his bid to stay on - those in his Zanu-PF party who wish to succeed him may be getting impatient.
His original plan was to change the constitution to postpone elections until 2010 but this idea was last December blocked by his party - a rare event.
Equally, some say the collapse in living standards is now affecting the soldiers and police officers who have been the bedrock of his support.
If they refused to carry out orders to fire at protesters, the fear factor would be removed, boosting the opposition campaign against him.
But Zimbabwe's economy has been in decline for several years - it is difficult to predict when the tipping point will come.
There was speculation that Mr Mugabe would come under strong pressure from his neighbours and even his party after the attacks on Mr Tsvangirai and the others but, as on several previous occasions, he has shown himself to be a wily politician and emerged unscathed.
What about the opposition?
Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change was formed in 1999 to oust Mr Mugabe but has so far failed to achieve that goal.
They complain that elections have been rigged and their activists beaten and even killed but from a political point of view, Mr Mugabe seems to have outsmarted them so far.
Two years ago, it split into two factions, making Mr Mugabe's life much easier.
The two factions have recently showed signs of coming together.
That could be why the police took such tough action to break up the rally and arrest Mr Tsvangirai and several of his colleagues.
What is the international community doing?
Following disputed elections, the US and the EU imposed targeted sanctions on Mr Mugabe and his close associates - they are banned from travelling and any assets they hold have been seized.
But African countries have been reluctant to openly criticise Mr Mugabe, who is widely respected as a hero of the fight against colonial rule.
Despite strong pressure, Zimbabwe's big neighbour, South Africa, has been reluctant to get involved, instead pursuing a policy they call "quiet diplomacy".
However, the government is understood to be particularly alarmed at plans to delay elections until 2010 - as this would coincide with South Africa's hosting of the World Cup.
Mr Mugabe has also moved closer to China, which is happy to continue business ties without lecturing about human rights and democracy.
Would Mugabe agree to step down?
He would have little choice if the Zanu-PF leadership united to tell him it would be better if he left - the party is not a one-man show.
But he may be worried about a possible prosecution if he was no longer head of state.
Mr Tsvangirai has repeatedly promised that Mr Mugabe would enjoy an "honourable exit" as the founding father of Zimbabwe.
But some of those who have suffered at the hands of his security agents would no doubt be tempted to take him to court.
One option may be for him to got to exile in Angola or Namibia, which have always remained his close allies.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZIMBABWE DELAYS INFLATION FIGURES !

Zimbabwe delays inflation figures.
By Rodney Smith BBC World Service business presenter

The cost of basic items has soared. Zimbabwe has delayed the publication of inflation data, leading to claims the government is reluctant to admit the extent of crippling price rises.
The release of the monthly figures has been put back a week at a time when inflation is fast approaching 2000%.
Zimbabwe is about to mark 27 years of independence and it is thought ministers are reluctant to reveal the degree of last month's price rises.
Inflation hit a record 1730% in February, the highest in the world.
IMF criticism
The inflation figures for March should have been published last week.
Higher fuel prices and businesses anticipating a possible wage freeze are believed to have added to the general rate of increase.
Even the governor of the Central Bank, Gideon Gono, has talked of his country suffering from "economic HIV".
At least 80% of Zimbabwe's population of about 13 million is living below the poverty line, according to figures from the Zimbabwe Congress of Trades Unions.
Last month the International Monetary Fund (IMF) condemned the Zimbabwean government for showing little sign that it was getting to grips with its mounting economic problems.
The result, said the IMF, would be more hardship and rising political tension.
It also forecast inflation hitting 5000% by the end of the year if President Mugabe's government did not act swiftly.
In neighbouring South Africa, the rand has been weakened by fears that any unrest in Zimbabwe would spill over into its neighbour.
The South African rand is currently trading at about R7.10 to the US dollar.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

SUDAN AGREES TO U.N. PEACEKEEPERS !

The African Union force is struggling to halt the violence. than 3,000 United Nations troops will be allowed into Darfur, according to Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol.
The apparent change of heart comes after months of international pressure, but there is no UN confirmation so far.
Mr Akol told a news conference that Sudan has now fully accepted the second phase of a UN plan to support 7,000 struggling African Union troops there.
Under the plan, UN attack helicopters and armoured personnel carriers will also be deployed to help AU forces.
The four-year Darfur conflict between rebels and pro-government Arab militia has seen more than 200,000 deaths and at least 2.4 million displaced.
A spokesman for the foreign ministry told the BBC that Sudan's acceptance had been passed on to African Union Chairman Alpha Omar Konare.
Mr Konare is currently in New York, briefing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council.
Outrage
Earlier, British aid agency Oxfam launched an appeal for humanitarian aid for the Darfur region of Sudan and east Chad.

In pictures: Darfur crisis

Oxfam says it needs £5m ($10m) to help displaced people in the region who continue to flee from violence.
"This is the greatest concentration of human suffering in the world and an outrage that affronts the world's moral values," Penny Lawrence, Oxfam's international director said after a tour of Darfur.
The international aid agency is currently providing clean water, health and sanitation services to more than 500,000 people in Darfur and eastern Chad.
"Nearly 1 million people are not getting any aid at all and in some areas the aid efforts is under threat due to increasing insecurity," an Oxfam statement said.
Visiting US official John Negroponte had also warned Sudan of isolation if it fails to stop harassment of humanitarian workers and rejects the deployment of UN peacekeepers in the war-torn region.
"The denial of visas and harassment of aid workers has created the impression that the government of Sudan is engaged in a deliberate campaign of intimidation," he said at the end of his tour of Sudan.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

RUSSIA PRESSES U.K. ON BEREZOVSKY

Boris Berezovsky used to be close to Vladimir Putin. Russia's chief prosecutor has sent a new request to the UK for the London-based Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky to be extradited.
Yuri Chaika's request followed Mr Berezovsky's claim on Friday that he was working to overthrow Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia wants the UK government to strip Mr Berezovsky of his refugee status.
Russian prosecutors have previously charged him with fraud. He was granted political asylum in the UK in 2003.
Russia's latest extradition request was triggered by Mr Berezovsky's interview with the Guardian newspaper on Friday, in which he said he was plotting a "revolution" to overthrow President Putin.
The tycoon later clarified his words, stating that he was advocating "bloodless change" - not violence.
Writing in the Guardian on Monday, Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Berezovsky's motives had been laid bare.
"We now expect the British authorities to rethink their decision to harbour a fugitive billionaire," Mr Peskov wrote.
Mr Peskov quoted a Russian academic, Andrei Piontkovsky, who called Mr Berezovsky "the embodiment of robber capitalism".
Mr Peskov said Russia "no longer tolerates the unfettered personal acquisition of state assets".
Mr Berezovsky has a fortune estimated at £800m ($1.4bn).
Previously an ally of former President Boris Yeltsin, he has already fought off Russian extradition requests on fraud charges which he said were politically motivated.
He was one of the first targets of President Putin's crackdown on the Russian oligarchs - well-connected entrepreneurs who made fortunes during privatisation - and went into self-imposed exile at the end of 2000.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

LE PEN URGES HALT TO IMMIGRATION !

Le Pen urges halt to immigration
By Emma Jane Kirby BBC News, Paris.

Mr Le Pen stunned France by reaching the second round in 2002. Jean-Marie Le Pen has been in politics for more than 50 years, but at his rally at Porte de Versailles in Paris the crowd greet him as if he was the hottest new act in politics.
Some 5-6,000 people waving flags crammed into the stadium on Sunday to cheer on the National Front leader. The overspill who could not fit in still screamed their approval through the open doors.
"I'm voting for the first time," 19-year-old Frederic told me. "And I'm voting Le Pen because immigration is a serious problem in France - that's not racist, it's realistic and Le Pen will deal with the problem, while candidates like Sarkozy and Royal just pretend it's not happening."
Thirty-five years after the National Front party was founded, stopping immigration remains its dominant theme. Mr Le Pen warned the crowd that France was in danger from the thousands of immigrants who arrive in the country each year.
"This is just the start of mass immigration," he warned from the podium. "If we do nothing, we will be submerged."
Racism debate
Last year a French court convicted the 78-year-old far-right leader of inciting racial hatred. But when I mention this to his supporters they insist he is not racist, just braver than most politicians in tackling taboo subjects.

France's vital statistics

Eric now lives in London but has come back to Paris for the day just to hear Mr Le Pen talk. "I don't care about racial issues - that's life and it's not my problem. Le Pen is a great guy because he will take action and France needs someone to take action."
Surprisingly perhaps, a recent survey suggests that up to 8% of French Muslims will vote National Front on 22 April.
Fayid Smahi, a regional councillor and National Front member in Paris, claims Mr Le Pen offers much more wholesome values than mainstream politicians.
"Above everything it's his family values we share. When we're eating our dinner, watching TV at night and we see two homosexual men kissing, it upsets us. As Muslims, and as decent French citizens, it shocks us."
Mr Smahi is convinced that Mr Le Pen also offers more hope to second-generation integrated Muslims who face prejudice because of their colour or race.
"Why is there this fundamental injustice in France? Because we are called Fayid, Zubeida, Monir? We are French citizens, have masters degrees, and yet we only get jobs at fast food restaurants. Well, if Mr Le Pen gets elected we will get proper jobs because he believes in putting French citizens - and that's what we are - first."
Solid support
Browsing in the National Front shop at the rally, among the flashing lapel pins and Le Pen baseball caps, a T-shirt catches my eye. On the breast pocket is a cartoon of an Arab man in Middle Eastern dress, laden with bags and suitcases. It carries the slogan "Bon Voyage Mate!"
France was horrified when Mr Le Pen came second in the 2002 presidential race, but that sense of shock has had no negative effect on his ratings.
The polls currently put him in fourth place and suggest that with between 13 and 16% he could get his highest score yet.
For the thousands of people at the rally who enthusiastically yell their support, it is worth remembering that many more voters will show their approval for the National Front more quietly at the ballot box on 22 April.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

GERMAN ARMY IN 'RACIST VIDEO' ROW !

The German army has faced a series of scandals in recent year. A video aired on German TV has shown an army recruit on firing practice being ordered to pretend he was in New York's Bronx facing hostile African Americans.
In the grainy 90-second video, the instructor tells the soldier to swear as he fires his gun.
US civil rights leader, Al Sharpton, said it was outrageous to depict blacks as "target practice".
New York officials say they are saddened and frustrated that the Bronx district is depicted so negatively.
"Clearly these folks don't know anything about African-Americans or the Bronx," said Bronx borough president Adolfo Carrion Jnr, who recently returned from a trip to Germany to promote tourism to the district.
He has demanded an apology from the Germany military over the clip.
Skulls
During the filmed training session, an instructor tells the soldier: "You're in the Bronx, a black van pulls up in front of you and three African-Americans get out and start really insulting your mother... act!".
The soldier then fires his gun several times and shouts obscenities in English, as the instructor encourages him to curse even louder.
The clip was filmed in a forest in July 2006, near the barracks of the northern German town of Rendsburg .
The German army said it has been aware of the video since January and was investigating it.
It is the latest in a series of scandals to hit the German military.
A group of 18 army instructors are on trial in the country accused of abusing and humiliating recruits during training in 2004.
Last year, German newspapers published images of German soldiers serving in Afghanistan posing with skulls.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

DISPUTE OVER 'NEAR-MISS' MISSILE !

Garuda officials said they received no warning about the . Indonesian passenger jet was forced to turn round in Indian airspace to avoid a nuclear-capable missile test flight, the Indonesian government says.
Officials from Garuda airlines say they received no advance notice of the test.
But India's Ministry of External Affairs said the tests followed normal safety precautions, and that Garuda was given advance warning.
The successful test was of an Agni-III surface-to-surface missile off the country's eastern coast on Thursday.
'Great expense'
"Usually closed airspace is alerted to international authorities but the fact is, our plane flew and had to return," Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Kristiarto Legowo told reporters in Jakarta.
We were not given any advance warning about this missile test -Garuda Director Ari Sapari.
"We will summon India's diplomat here soon to seek official clarification," he said.
"We have to make sure this does not happen in the future."
But a spokesman from India's Ministry of External Affairs said: "India's missile testing programme has always followed the requisite safety precautions."
The Garuda airliner was carrying 413 Muslim pilgrims from the capital, Jakarta, to Saudi Arabia, when the Indian control tower told pilots the missile had been launched, said Ari Sapari, the national carrier's director.
"We were not given any advance warning about this missile test," he told the AP news agency.
"This was obviously confusing and worrying. It also caused us to disrupt an international flight schedule - a great financial expense."
Smoke trails
The Boeing 747 immediately returned to Jakarta and took off again for Jeddah seven hours later, he said.
Another Garuda plane bound for Riyadh also had to delay its departure because of the test.
Indonesian officials say that details of the incident may now be passed on to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

India's Agni-III missiles increase military reach.
The jet's exact location in relation to the missile, which trailed orange and yellow smoke as it rocketed skyward, has not yet been made public.
The missile tested is designed to reach 3,000km (1,900 miles) and puts China's major cities well into range, as well as targets deep in the Middle East.
The missile was launched from Wheeler Island off the eastern state of Orissa and is also said to be capable of carrying up to a 300-kiloton nuclear warhead.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

FIRST RESULTS DUE IN NIGERIA POLL !

Initial results are expected shortly from Nigeria's regional elections, held on Saturday but marred by violence and voter intimidation.
At least 21 people were killed in polling-day attacks across the country.
The vote was also affected by the late opening of polling stations and reports of missing ballot papers.
But election officials reported a high voter turnout in the state polls, which are seen as a key test ahead of next weekend's presidential vote.
Fraud claims
Nigerian police said at least 21 people had died in election-related incidents - including an unspecified number of police officers. But other reports put the toll higher.
The head of the European Union mission, Max van den Berg, said an electoral commission office had been burnt down.
President Olusegun Obasanjo said he thought polling had gone relatively well but the opposition said there were widespread irregularities and fraud.

In pics: Nigerian state polls
Voters disappointed

The outcome of the election for governors and state legislatures is as important to many Nigerians as the presidential poll.
State governors can be extremely powerful, controlling budgets of around $1bn, especially in oil-rich states.
The poll was also an important indicator of how free and fair the presidential polls will be.
Stolen votes
President Obasanjo had said that fraud or violence would not be tolerated.
In Port Harcourt - the largest city in the oil producing Niger Delta - the BBC's Alex Last saw young men storming a polling station and running off with ballot papers.

The biggest issue in the elections is the future of my children, the future of Nigeria's children
Eunice Folorunso
Election voices

Early on Saturday, suspected militants torched three police stations, reportedly killing seven policemen.
There were pockets of violence in some other parts of the country, where election materials were destroyed and electoral officers attacked.
Up to 70 people were also killed in violence during pre-election campaigning, human rights groups say.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

IN QUOTES : WILLIAM AND KATE

The pair met at university. Prince William has split from his girlfriend Kate Middleton, following intense media pressure and speculation about a possible engagement.

Here is a selection of quotes about the couple's break-up:

I just don't think she had the breeding quite honestly and I'm not being snooty I'm being factual. Royal commentator James Whittaker

He's a 24-year-old red blooded male... and 24 is a young age to be settled down when there are plenty other bits of fun to be having around the world. Executive Director Society of Editors, Bob Satchwell

Maybe she realised the awful burden she would have taken on, it's a life sentence marrying a royal. Hello Magazine correspondent Judy Wade

Most people at that age are thinking about things like, we need to look for a mortgage, but she's got MI5 helping her with bodyguards. Psychologist Linda Papadopoulos

It may be that she's said marry me or I'm going to dump you. Editor-in-Chief of Majesty magazine Ingrid Seward

It's the biggest kiss and tell in the history of kiss and tells... my instinct tells me that there is somebody else in the background. PR guru Max Clifford

They had four years together away from the royal circus, they lived a normal kind of life. Royal biographer Penny Junor

We are as shocked as everyone else, if rather more relieved than most, as we were preparing to pay out over £50,000 to punters who had backed the couple to wed. Spokesman for bookmakers William Hill, Rupert Adams

Neither my client nor her family will be talking to the press or media or commenting on or off the record relating to the matters publicised this morning. Kate Middleton's lawyer

This relationship formed in a media-free zone (at university) but of course since then Kate has been under intense pressure from paparazzi photographers. She really was at her wits end. Sun photographer, Arthur Edwards

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CHINA URGES PATIENCE ON N. KOREA !

N Korea has pledged to shut down its main reactor. China has urged the US to show patience as North Korea appeared set to miss a key deadline for closing its Yongbyon nuclear reactor.
Beijing had urged US officials to wait "a couple more days", US nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill said.
Under a landmark deal signed on 13 February, North Korea agreed to shut down and seal its reactor within 60 days in return for economic aid.
But a banking row has stalled progress towards meeting the 14 April date.
"We have reached our 60-day deadline and needless to say, this presents a concern that the deadline has not been met," Mr Hill said in Beijing, where he has been holding talks.
But officials in Beijing had asked the US to be flexible, he said.
"They said the lines of communication were open... if it is going to get resolved it certainly should be able to get resolved very soon," he said.
Transferring funds
The implementation of the deal - aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear programme - has been delayed by a row over $25m (£13m) of North Korean money frozen in a Macau bank.

N KOREA NUCLEAR DEAL

N Korea to 'shut down and seal' Yongbyon reactor, then disable all nuclear facilities
In return, will be given 1m tonnes of heavy fuel oil
N Korea to invite IAEA back to monitor deal
Under earlier 2005 deal, N Korea agreed to end nuclear programme and return to non-proliferation treaty
N Korea's demand for light water reactor to be discussed at "appropriate time".

Limited outcry
Q&A: Nuclear standoff

In 2005 the US accused Banco Delta Asia (BDA) of acting as a conduit for money earned by Pyongyang from illegal activities, causing Macau authorities to freeze the accounts.
After the 13 February deal, the US unblocked the funds and in recent days said it had found a way for the money to be transferred back to Pyongyang.
North Korea - which insists that progress on implementing the deal is contingent on getting the money back - said on Friday that it would "confirm soon" whether the funds had been released.
Mr Hill said that financial dispute had been resolved. "North Korea understands the fact that their accounts, these funds, are accessible to them," he said.
And he called for greater commitment from North Korea.
"We'd like to see a similar level of effort from the DPRK (North Korea), a level of effort that, frankly, we haven't been seeing," he said.
But on Friday, Foreign Ministry official Kim Son-gyong told the French news agency AFP that North Korea would "respect our commitment" under the deal.
"There is no reason to be pessimistic. We will be faithful to this agreement if the Americans respect its clauses," he said.
The deal followed heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula after North Korea test fired a new long-range missile in July and then held its first nuclear test in October.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

SYMBOLIC STRIKE AT IRAQI SANCTUM !

Symbolic strike at Iraqi sanctum
By Jim Muir BBC News, Baghdad.

Parliament bombing

The bomb that exploded in the cafeteria of the Iraqi parliament on Thursday has shaken the inner corridors of power in the country, and caused alarm in Washington, whose diplomats and officials often visit the building that was hit.
It has also prompted an investigation into how the suicide bomber could have got through the elaborate security measures in place around the building and the adjacent Green Zone.
Even by current Iraqi standards, it was an extraordinary day.
Imagine waking up in London, to the news that Hammersmith Bridge had just been blown away by a lorry full of explosives.
And then at lunchtime, a bomb in the cafeteria at parliament - more than anything else, the explosion at the Iraqi parliament resonated around the world.
The sad fact is that, had this bomb not gone off in parliament and killed some MPs, it would barely have been reported internationally
This was the inner sanctum, the seat of power, the very heart of the regime set in place by the Americans and their allies, and heavily protected by them.
If even this could be breached by the bombers, where in Iraq was safe?
The vivid television footage captured by a local station that happened to be interviewing an MP when the bomb went off, further magnified the impact, and gave a taste of the horrific scenes that follow every single bombing of this kind that happen in Iraq on a daily basis.
In fact this one probably caused more alarm in Washington than it did among the people of Baghdad.
Iraqi 'indifference'
The sad fact is that, had this bomb not gone off in parliament and killed MPs, it would barely have been reported internationally in a country where such outrages often claim scores of lives, in crowded streets and markets and mosques.

Ordinary Iraqis will be more affected by the destruction of a key bridge. Bridge
That is why many Iraqis reacted with indifference to the bomb in parliament.
"What have they ever done for us?" was the answer of one when he heard the news. "What I care about are all the ordinary people who get blown to pieces every day."
Apart from those who live in the isolated bubble of security that the Green Zone normally is, most of Baghdad's residents would be much more affected by the destruction, just a few hours earlier, of the Sarrafiya bridge, one of the major links across the Tigris between the city's two halves.
Violent equation
But the attack on parliament may have focused American and other minds on the failure so far of the much-trumpeted security "surge" in Baghdad, to affect one half of the violence that's tearing the country apart.
Since it began over two months ago, the security plan has considerably reduced the level of sectarian abductions and killings.
Many of them were attributed to the Shia militias, which have melted away in deference to the plan.
But the other half of the violent equation, the deadly bombings by Sunni insurgents, usually aimed at Shias in one way or another, has continued unabated and even been stepped up.
The Shia militias are already openly asking why the security plan is so unbalanced.
And ordinary Iraqis are asking why they're still being massacred in their scores and hundreds by these massive bombs virtually every day, somewhere in the country.
Perhaps the explosion in parliament will spur the planners to redouble their efforts to stop the bombers slipping through the net, not just in the Green Zone, but elsewhere too.
But it has also given those at the centre of power here in Baghdad a taste of what may lie ahead, if the security plan ends up failing.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

TEAM ACCEPYTS DJ'S RACISM APOLOGY !

The Rutgers team hopes the row will be a catalyst for change. The women's basketball team at the centre of a row over broadcaster Don Imus has accepted his apology for his use of racist language about them.
Mr Imus met the Rutgers team late on Thursday, hours after he was dismissed by US television and radio network CBS.
Their coach said the team was "in the process of forgiving" and hoped the row would be a catalyst for change.
Mr Imus had called the mostly black members of the Rutgers University team "nappy-headed hos" on his radio show.
"Ho" is slang for prostitute and "nappy-headed" is a derogatory term for the hair of many black people.
'Forgiving process'
The row over the remarks culminated in the dismissal of Mr Imus, known as a controversial "shock jock", despite his repeated public apologies.
These comments are indicative of greater ills in our culture
C Vivian StringerRutgers coach
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday his comments had been "disgusting" and Mr Imus deserved to lose his job.
"I'm very glad that there was, in fact, a consequence," Ms Rice said.
"I think that this kind of coarse language doesn't belong anywhere in reasonable dialogue between reasonable people," she said.
Mr Imus and his wife Deirdre met the Rutgers team at the mansion of New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, who is critically ill after being involved in a car crash on his way to the meeting.
Reading from a statement on Friday, coach C Vivian Stringer said the team accepted Mr Imus' personal apology and were "in the process of forgiving".
"We still find his statements to be unacceptable, and this is an experience that we will never forget," she said.
"These comments are indicative of greater ills in our culture. It is not just Mr Imus, and we hope that this will be and serve as a catalyst for change.
"Let us continue to work hard to together to make this world a better place."
'Hate e-mail
Mrs Imus, who co-hosted an annual charity radio show in her husband's place on Friday, said that he "feels awful".

Don Imus made repeated public apologies but still lost his job.
"He asked them: I want to know the pain I caused, and I want to know how to fix this and change this," she said.
Mrs Imus said some of the Rutgers team had been receiving hate e-mail and she demanded that it stop.
"If you must send e-mail, send it to my husband," she said, adding that the Rutgers team members were "unbelievably courageous and beautiful women".
Civil rights leaders the Rev Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, who had been calling for Mr Imus to be fired, welcomed his dismissal.
Contracts dropped
CBS head Leslie Moonves told CBS staff in a memo that the decision to fire Mr Imus was an attempt to root out a culture of permissiveness that allowed people to be demeaned.
US cable TV company MSNBC said on Wednesday it was dropping its simulcast of Mr Imus's programme.
Several major companies had decided to cancel advertising contracts, and a number of high-profile guests said they would no longer appear on his show.
Mr Imus's show was worth about $15m (£7.6m) annually to CBS through advertising and syndication fees, said Associated Press news agency.
It had about 3.5 million listeners a week in 2005, according to media research, and the MSNBC simulcast was estimated to draw about 330,000 viewers per week.

BBC NEWS REPORT

A LETTER FROM THE DIASPORA !

Saturday 14th April 2007

Dear Friends,

The South African papers over the Easter weekend were full of comment and analysis of how Thabo Mbeki was going to tackle the problem of Zimbabwe and what particular hurdles he might face in dealing with Mugabe. It was pretty much agreed that it was not going to be easy for the South African President to influence Robert Mugabe. Demonising him as just another crazed African dictator is not helpful; the truth is that Mugabe is a complex and enigmatic character who inspires both fear and respect. It is sometimes hard to remember when one hears the claims of near-deity from some of his followers, that Mugabe is human with ordinary human as well as political problems. Reports that Mugabe had flown off to Malaysia to spend Easter with Grace and the children combined with a piece in the British tabloid The Sun that the trip was intended 'to rescue his marriage' set me thinking. Then, last week's Zimbabwean carried a story which suggested that Grace had been out of Zimbabwe since the middle of March, supposedly on a business trip. According to usually 'reliable' sources, Grace had gone off in a huff after a disagreement with her husband over the country's political situation and his stated intention to contest the 2008 election. At first glance it seemed no more than salacious gossip, irrelevant to the current political crisis in the country but the story might have more significance than at first appears. Consider the facts; Grace is Mugabe's second wife, the mother of his children and some forty years younger than her 83 year old husband. Over the years Zimbabweans have consistently dismissed her as unintelligent, greedy and a shopaholic whose only interest is in being First Lady with all the privileges and power that entails. Her public appearances have shown her unsmiling, generally behind large dark glasses and seemingly completely bored with whatever ceremony is taking place. Such is her public persona; if indeed Grace is 'just in it for the money' then it seems curious that she is opposed to her husband staying in office where she can continue to enjoy all the perks that go with his job - despite the occasional boredom. I tried putting myself in Grace's expensive shoes and I think it must be quite an uncomfortable place to be! She must know that her husband is the most feared man in the country, she can't move around freely, her life is not her own and she can never be quite sure that she or her children are safe. 'Well,' you might answer, ' She knew that when she married him'. Ah, but she didn't know then - none of us did - that the country would descend to near bankruptcy, lawlessness and violence. I am certainly not suggesting that Grace deserves our sympathy; what I am saying is that perhaps, her state of mind may have some relevance in the current stalemate. Here's an 83 year old man who has enjoyed absolute power for 27 years. As his wife, Grace has never been loved, by her husband or the people in the way Sally Mugabe was and she must know that. Mugabe's personality, characterised as it is by arrogance and messianic self-delusion, is such that he is never going to admit it's time for him to go. As the wife of the President of a pariah state, Grace has very little to look forward to and maybe that's why she wants him to 'take the gap' now - before it's too late and she is the wife of a convicted war criminal. Will this have any effect on Robert Mugabe? Is it possible that his young wife's opinion will have any sway with him or will his stubborn desire to remain in power for life combined with his fear of prosecution prove stronger than the desire to save his marriage? Whichever way you look at it the truth is that Mugabe is beset with problems – personal and religious. He is a practising Catholic and last weekend the Roman Catholic Bishops' Pastoral Letter was forthright in its condemnation of the violence being meted out on the opposition. Mugabe's ministers may deny that the violence is happening – Kemba Mohadi's recent interview on SW Radio was yet another laughable example of ministerial idiocy - and Mugabe himself may claim that the onslaught is justified because the opposition are no better than terrorists. But when even his wife and his Church are acutely uncomfortable with his behaviour, perhaps the old man will be forced to listen before it's too late?

Miracles do happen!More later.

Ndini shamwari yenyu. PH

NEW SUICIDE ATTACKS HIT MOROCCO !

It is the second attack by suicide bombers in Casablanca this week. Two suicide bombers have blown themselves up in the Moroccan city of Casablanca, officials say.
One woman passer-by was injured in the blasts, which happened near the US consulate and its cultural centre.
The incident came four days after three people blew themselves up and a fourth was shot dead during a police raid on suspected militants in the city.
The men were wanted in connection with a 11 March bombing at an internet cafe in Casablanca.
Hours after the two men blew themselves up, police arrested the leader and deputy leader of a group behind the 11 March attack and the ones earlier this week, security sources and local media said.
They did not identify the men arrested.
Regional fears
The two bombers - identified by police as brothers - blew themselves up in Boulevard Moulay Youssef in the city's central district.
One of the two bombers asked a policeman for access to the American cultural centre and when questioned further the pair blew themselves up, security officials told the French news agency AFP.
"I saw a man talking to a policeman, trying to distract him I guess, while another man walked by to the consulate and blew himself up over there," a passer-by said.

Police arrested three people after the bombings and found another explosives belt, officials and police said.
An interior ministry official told the Associated Press news agency that the belt linked the brothers with the men who blew themselves up on Tuesday - as they were confronted by Moroccan police in a Casablanca suburb. A fourth suspected militant was shot and one policemen was killed in one of the blasts.
The BBC's Richard Hamilton in Rabat said Moroccan police have been searching for members of an alleged terrorist cell that was planning what they say was a massive bombing campaign against tourist resorts and foreign-owned ships.
It follows last month's bombing when the alleged ringleader of the group killed himself in an internet cafe in the city, our correspondent says.
BBC Arab affairs analyst Magdi Abdelhadi says the recent foiled suicide attempts in Morocco, coupled with recent explosions in neighbouring Algiers have raised fears of a new surge of radical Islamist violence in North Africa.
The Moroccan authorities last week played down the possibility of a link between the latest incidents in Casablanca and the blasts in Algiers.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

VOTING EXTENDED IN NIGERIA POLLS !

Polls opened three hours late in some parts of the country. Voting has been extended across Nigeria due to the late opening of polling stations in many parts of the country.
Electoral chief Maurice Iwo assured Nigerians that "people who are already at the polling stations will be allowed to vote, no matter how late".
There were scenes of chaos in many areas as polls opened several hours late. Many busy centres are now set to stay open into the evening.
The polls are a key test ahead of next weekend's presidential elections.
The winners of this Saturday's election will have the greatest effect on daily life for the 140m inhabitants of Africa's most populous state.
State governors can be extremely powerful - with budgets of around $1bn, especially in oil-rich states.

In pics: Nigerian state polls
Voters disappointed

These polls are also an important indicator of how free and fair the presidential polls will be.
Tight security is in operation amid fears of violence instigated by gangs sponsored by rival politicians.
President Olusegun Obasanjo says fraud or violence will not be tolerated.
'Genuine fear'
But in Port Harcourt - the largest city in the oil producing Niger Delta - the BBC's Alex Last said there was genuine fear of violence and rigging.
HAVE YOUR SAY

Despite all the odds associated with this election, Nigerians must play their part and exercise their rights
Adeleye Adenola, Australia

Are you voting?

Our correspondent was at one polling station which had only been open for a few minutes when a gang of young men on motorcycles stormed it and made off with the ballot papers and the ballot box.
Early on Saturday, suspected militants torched three police stations, killing seven policemen.
Meanwhile in the commercial capital Lagos - an opposition stronghold - the streets and freeways were abnormally quiet and the military was out in full force manning checkpoints at key road junctions.
Many polling stations in different parts of the country opened several hours late.
The BBC News website's Senan Murray is at a polling station in the Rukuba area of Jos in central Nigeria.

The biggest issue in the elections is the future of my children, the future of Nigeria's children -
Eunice Folorunso

Election voices

He says eager voters stood around waiting to vote from early on Saturday morning.
Electoral officers only turned up just before midday to open the polling station.
Voter Yakubu Ropshak, 27, said: "We are waiting and we are not going anywhere until we vote."
Our correspondent says that there have been pockets of violence in some parts of the country where election materials have been destroyed and electoral officers attacked.
In north-eastern Bauchi state an office block belonging to the Independent National Election Commission (Inec) was burnt by protestors in Gamawe village.
Resident election commissioner, Aniedi Abasi-Ikiowar told our correspondent that the destruction of the office building would not affect voting in the area.
And in the Asari-Toro local government area of Rivers State an Inec van was attacked and escorts were shot at by unknown gunmen.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

CHINA PM WRAPS UP VISIT TO JAPAN !

Jiabao sought to be conciliatory during his visit. Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has wrapped up a three-day landmark visit to Japan that was aimed at warming ties between the two countries.
After a formal address to parliament on Thursday, he spent his last day enjoying a lighter schedule in the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto.
Mr Wen, who is the first Chinese leader to visit Japan since 2000, said both sides had succeeded in melting the ice.
But he added that problems between the two nations would take time to solve.
Mr Wen's trip was an attempt to build on a fragile detente after a visit to China by Japan's prime minister in October.
'Home run'
In Kyoto, one of the country's most beautiful cities, Mr Wen took part in a traditional tea ceremony.
He then pitted himself against some students in a game of baseball.

KEY ISSUES

History: Japan's neighbours often think it has not done enough to atone for wartime atrocities
Trade: Bilateral trade is growing strongly
North Korea: Japan often takes a tougher stance than China over the nuclear issue
East China Sea: Beijing and Tokyo disagree over the boundary between their exclusive economic zones
Security: Japan wants to revise is pacifist constitution, which concerns China. China's military expansion concerns Japan

New course for relations
Have Your Say: New dawn?

"I loved baseball as a child. I wanted to play baseball if I came to Japan," he said, sporting a jersey with the number 35 to represent the number of years the two countries have had bilateral relations.
He also visited a farmer, trying out his tractor and planting tomato seeds, and laid flowers at the memorial to former Chinese PM Zhou Enlai, who helped normalise ties between the two countries.
Mr Wen then moved on to Osaka, where he met business leaders and politicians, before heading home.
Reciting a poem he had written to sum up his visit, he told them: "Spring has come. The sun shines brightly. The cherry tree blossoms proudly and the snow and ice have melted."
But, he gave a more guarded assessment of Sino-Japanese relations to Kyodo news agency, saying: "I cannot say all problems have been solved. We need more time."
The BBC's Chris Hogg, in Tokyo, says Japanese officials are convinced that the three-day tour has been a success.
The tone of Mr Wen's addresses has seemed different from what the Japanese are used to hearing from Chinese leaders, he says.
Mr Wen delivered a message of friendship, collaboration and co-operation to Japan's parliament, or Diet, on Thursday, but asked the government to match its apologies over its World War II with concrete action.
However, he said that just a few militarist leaders were to blame and that most Japanese people were also war victims.
Atonement
Japan and China have been at odds in recent years over Japan's World War II aggression, and China has often accused Japan of not fully atoning for its actions.

In pictures: Wen visit
Chinese press reacts to visit

Our correspondent says some commentators in Japan have interpreted that as a warning to Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe not to visit the Yasukuni shrine honouring its war dead, which the Chinese believe glorifies militarism.
The last Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited the shrine many times as leader - prompting the Chinese to refuse to hold bilateral meetings with him.
Mr Wen said that "to reflect on history is not to dwell on hard feelings, but to remember and learn from the past to open a better future".
But several difficult issues remain, including the dispute over who owns oil and gas reserves buried under the East China Sea.
Japan accuses China of being secretive about its rapidly growing defence budget, while Beijing is wary of plans to revise Japan's pacifist constitution to make it easier to deploy troops.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

EYEWITNESS: UGANDA ATTACKS ON ASIANS !

Kampala resident Salim Matovu was at Thursday's protest against the allocation of a forest reserve to a sugar company, which turned violent leading to the death of at least three people.
The sugar company is owned by Ugandan Asians and some protesters started to attack members of the country's small but economically powerful Asian community.
At first it was very peaceful but when policemen denied the demonstrators access to Kampala Road, they turned rowdy.
Some started chanting songs against Indians asking them to return to their country.
The protest turned into a hunting session for Indian men and women all over the central business district.
The first victim was an Indian man who was innocently walking near the clock tower in Kampala. The irate mob pounced on him and stoned him to death.
When the crowds reached Entebbe Road, they attacked another Indian man riding home on his motor bike.
The man was suspected to be fleeing from the protesters. He was pulled off the motorbike, slapped and beaten severely but luckily policemen rescued him.
His motorbike was however burnt to ashes by the protestors.
Running battles
The crowd hurled insults at the police as they accused Indians of taking over retail businesses in the city and Uganda's economy.
As the protestors snaked through the streets, many Indian traders closed their shops and started leaving the town hurriedly.
Some shops were looted in the ensuing running battles.
Protestors also attacked and tried to enter a Hindu Temple at Nakasero, where some Indians had sought refuge but policemen arrived timely to protect them.
The Indians were later transferred on a bus to the central police station.
Trouble then spread out to Kampala suburbs where an Indian couple was attacked in Kansanga, as they tried to drive out of town.
Their car was smashed and they were beaten before policemen on patrol rescued them.
Others attacks on Indian motorists took place in Kibuye, Ndeeba and Natete.
A new truck that had Kenyan registration numbers was also burnt by the protestors who claimed that it was used to ferry sugar from Sugar Corporation of Uganda Limited [which wants to take over part of the Mabira forest reserve].
Kampala is now calm as the irate crowds have dispersed by the heavy rains and policemen.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

UGANGA LEADER DEFENDS FOREST PLAN !

Police fired live rounds during the disturbance. Uganda's president has defended plans to allocate forest land to a sugar company which sparked deadly clashes.
"I shall not be deterred by people who don't see where the future of Africa lies," Uganda's New Vision newspaper quotes Yoweri Museveni as saying.
At least three people died on Thursday during a protest march that turned violent in the capital and there were several attacks on Asians in Kampala.
The sugar firm which wants to use part of the Mabira forest is Asian-owned.
Environmentalists say the move threatens the existence of rare species of trees and birds in the 30,000 hectare forest.
During the march a suspected looter was shot by guards, a passer-by was hit by a stray bullet and an Asian man was stoned to death, while police fired live bullets.
Racial dimension
The BBC's Sarah Grainger in Kampala says parliament is yet to change the status of the forest, but it is an emotive issue in the country.

They don't understand that the future on all countries lies in processing
President Yoweri Museveni

Have Your Say: Jobs vs the environment
Eyewitness: Uganda violence

The Sugar Corporation of Uganda (Scoul), part of the Mehta group, wants to expand its plantations in central Uganda, taking over one-third of the Mabira forest.
The government is divided on the matter and the state-run New Vision paper has criticised the move.
"It is the short-sighted people who put their opinions in writing. They don't understand that the future of all countries lies in processing," Mr Museveni said.
Other supporters of the sugar bid say the expansion would create more jobs and income for the country.
They dismiss those opposing the move, saying subsistence farmers have already encroached on much of the forest land.
The kabaka, or king, of the local Buganda community has offered to give alternative land for the sugar company in a bid to save the hardwood forest.
But campaigners have called on Ugandans to boycott Scoul products.
In the capital there has been a car bumper sticker campaign urging people to save Mabira forest.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

RUSSIA PROBES BEREZOVSKY 'PLOT' !

Mr Berezovsky was granted political asylum in the UK in 2003. Russia's chief prosecutor says he has launched criminal proceedings against London-based exile Boris Berezovsky.
Mr Berezovsky had told the Guardian newspaper he was plotting "revolution" to overthrow President Vladimir Putin.
The tycoon later clarified his words, stating that he backs "bloodless change" and does not support violence.
The Foreign Office said it would "look carefully" at Mr Berezovsky's comments, and that it "deplored" any call for the violent overthrow of a sovereign state.
Financial support
Mr Berezovsky was granted political asylum in the UK in 2003.
He told the Guardian that "we need to use force to change this regime" - referring to President Putin's administration in the Kremlin.
Mr Berezovsky also said he was giving financial support to unnamed members of Russia's political elite who wanted to force a change of leadership in Moscow.
The Kremlin said the comments undermined Mr Berezovsky's right to refugee status in the UK.
Extradition requests
Mr Berezovsky has a fortune estimated at £800m ($1.4bn).
Previously an ally of former President Boris Yeltsin, he has already fought off Russian extradition requests on fraud charges which he said were politically motivated.
He was one of the first targets of President Putin's crackdown on the Russian oligarchs - well-connected entrepreneurs who made fortunes during privatisation - and went into self-imposed exile at the end of 2000.
Following the Guardian article, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov again called on the UK to extradite Mr Berezovsky and said he should be stripped of his refugee status.
Violating people
Speaking to the BBC on Friday, Mr Berezovsky explained why he was considering a violent transfer of power in Russia.
"Of course I'd prefer it to be peaceful - I don't like violence. But the problem is that for centuries the Russian authorities have been violating the Russian people, turning it into cattle.
"Take a quick look at what's being shown on Russian state television - any channel - and you'll see that, under the cover of being 'the legitimate authorities', they're violating the Russian people.
"Therefore, unfortunately, I can't say that this revolution will be without blood. But I tell you - it will happen, with 100% certainty," Mr Berezovsky said.
Direct action
In his later statement he said he wanted to see Russia become a free and democratic country - but that fair elections were not viable under the current regime.
"I do support direct action. I do not advocate or support violence," he said.
Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, who now heads an opposition group called Other Russia, said Mr Berezovsky's comments are quite damaging.
"Government is using such firing statements to accuse us of preparing the armed resistance, some sort of violence, while we are sticking with the very peaceful actions," he said.
'Diplomatic interests'
Mark Field, the MP in whose constituency the radiation poisoning of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko is thought to have happened, said Mr Berezovsky was using the UK as a "safe haven" for a campaign of political agitation.
Mr Field said: "The deal has got to be pretty straightforward enough for any political refugees coming into this country.
"If you want to come to live here, you've got to abide by our laws and not undermine the political and diplomatic interests of this country."
The BBC's Russia analyst Steven Eke says Mr Putin continues to enjoy approval ratings of well over 80% in Russia and a majority of Russians would welcome him staying in office beyond his constitutional limit of two terms.
Mr Berezovsky, on the other hand, is a public hate figure in Russia, our analyst says.
Mr Putin has not only consolidated his own grip, but also surrounded himself by like-minded people, drawn overwhelmingly from a security service background, whose loyalty has never been questioned.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

STEEP LEARNING CURVE FOR U.N.'S BAN !

Mr Ban has spoken out on global warming and Darfur. The new UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has been in office for just over 100 days - traditionally the period in which new leaders make their mark.
Upon taking office, Mr Ban pledged to be a harmoniser and a bridge builder, who would restore trust in the UN. The BBC's Laura Trevelyan at the UN asks how the man with what has been called the most impossible job on earth has been doing.
It's not easy being UN secretary general - Kofi Annan was fond of quoting how it is often called the most impossible job on earth.
Ban Ki-moon has been installed in his suite of offices on the 38th floor of the towering UN secretariat building in Manhattan for three months now.
One senior aide to Kofi Annan predicted it would be a vertical take-off for the new man in charge - and so it has proved.
Mr Ban has gone from being South Korea's foreign minister to the head of an often fractious and divided world body with 192 different member states.
Not only that, but the UN is an organisation steeped in its own peculiar and highly specific sub culture - where resentments and tensions over geopolitics spill over into this building and manifest themselves in strange ways.
Asked about the frustrations of his first 100 days, Mr Ban told reporters: "Frustration? I have been trying to learn and adapt myself as fast and as well as possible. I have learned many lessons and I have been much encouraged by the strong support from my staff and member states."
Department troubles
The five permanent members of the Security Council - France, Britain, the US, China and Russia - effectively selected Mr Ban.
He can bark about lots of things but he can't force change in the organisation
Professor Ed LuckColumbia UniversityThey had the power to veto the appointment and Mr Ban's pitch to reform the UN after a turbulent period in which the oil-for-food scandal had tarnished the organisation's reputation was well received.
But the new secretary general's sensible sounding plan to split the overstretched Department of Peacekeeping into two and reshape the Department of Disarmament ran straight into trouble. Jim Traub, author of Kofi Annan and the UN, explained why.
"The Disarmament Department hasn't succeeded in disarming anyone or anything but it doesn't matter because the Third World likes disarmament, so the Third World rose up as one against this change," he said.
"He was shocked to discover that what he thought was a purely institutional set of arrangements that needed to be made provoked a mighty uproar. In the aftermath he went about doing that kind of painstaking political work, ie grovelling, which he is apparently expected to do to make any changes."
'On message'
Senior diplomats from Western and developing world nations do not usually agree on much but they are united in complaining privately that the new boss is too reliant on his South Korean advisers.
Global warming is well chosen not only in the sense that is it as immense and urgent an issue as Aids is, but also unlike let's say terrorism, it's more amenable to UN action
Jim TraubAuthor, Kofi Annan and the UNIt's no way to run a world body, observed one ambassador. But Ed Luck, professor of international relations at Columbia University in New York, says such complaints are overblown.
"Partly the UN hasn't seen an Asian secretary general for 35 years, the style is a bit different and certainly he's had to get used to an organisation where the secretary general has enormously high profile but little power," he says.
"He can bark about lots of things but he can't force change in the organisation."
But on the key issues facing the world, says Ed Luck, Mr Ban is right where he should be.
"He's shown a lot of courage facing up to very tough issues, and a willingness to speak truth to power, as when he spoke to President Bush about the need to focus on global warming, when he tells the Sudanese that they have to do something about Darfur. He's been willing to be outspoken."
Priority issue
Mr Ban has soft power - the power to persuade, to preach from his pulpit, rather than the hard power of military might or economic force. Jim Traub says the new secretary general has clearly identified a pressing problem where he can use the soft power at his disposal.
"I think his one substantive priority has been global warming. Just as for Kofi Annan the one priority he singled out was Aids," he says.
"Global warming is well chosen not only in the sense that is it as immense and urgent an issue as Aids is, but also unlike let's say terrorism, it's more amenable to UN action."
For Ed Luck, Mr Ban has made a solid start and will only get stronger: "I think insiders probably fret more about all the little mistakes of one sort or another, these things really don't matter too much.
"I think what the world has seen is a secretary general who cares a great deal about the organisation, who's very energetic, who has a personal modesty which is refreshing and who is determined to make a difference. I think the people will stay with him and I think the governments will get used to him."
Mr Ban himself told reporters he is clear about what his priorities are in the days to come.
"I am going to step up my diplomatic efforts to resolve the Darfur situation, and Somalia, and try to contribute more to the Middle East peace process," he said.
"So, maybe you have to wait and see until you can see some of my achievements."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

BRAZIL BREAKS UP 'KILLING FIRM' !

Local police officers are suspected of involvement in the gang. Brazil's police say they have broken up a gang suspected of carrying out about 1,000 contract killings in five years.
At least 20 people, including police officers, businessmen and hired gunmen, were arrested in the north-eastern state of Pernambuco.
Police described the gang as "Murder Incorporated" - a professional business operation hired to kill people over small debts, and out of revenge.
The north-eastern state of Pernambuco has the highest murder rate in Brazil.
You can certainly call it a homicide firm
Jorge Pontes,Police chief, Pernambuco
Death squads involving serving and retired police officers have long been a problem in Brazil where shop-keepers sometimes use them against street children.
Police say the gang was a professional organisation which carried out around four killings a week for between $500 and $2,500 each (£252-1260).
It was believed to have been hired - often by local merchants - for motives which the police described as banal. Some of the victims had debts to loan sharks, others were simply caught up in personal disputes, like rows over women.
Inside involvement
The federal police chief in Pernambuco, Jorge Pontes, said the gang operated like a business prepared to take on absolutely any killing.
"This group practises what we in the police call 'general hospital'. We were suddenly faced with this homicide company," he said.
"Many times the victims were killed because of loan sharks, they owed money."
The organisation is believed to have used local police officers to cover up its activities by removing evidence from crime scenes.
Earlier this week, another death squad was broken up in Pernambuco's capital, Recife.
The BBC's Simon Watts says the sad fact is that life is cheap in a poor state with a long history of violence in cities and rural areas.
He says victims are often street children or small-time thieves regarded as social undesirables. Local police are either directly involved or else turn a blind eye, while convictions are rare.
Campaigning prosecutors in Brazil have called these arrests a big step forward - but they say many more operations of this kind are needed.

BBC NEWS REPORT..

CAR REBELS 'TO LAY DOWN WEAPONS ' !

Some people have fled their homes to live in the forest. Rebels in the Central African Republic have signed a deal to end the conflict, an army general says.
"We believe that peace has finally taken root," said Gen Raymond Ndougou, who signed for the government.
The UFDR rebels have reportedly agreed to disarm and for their fighters to join the national army but other rebels remain active in the remote north-east.
President Francois Bozize had flown to the rebel base in the north-eastern town of Birao for the ceremony.
CAR has accused neighbouring Sudan of backing the rebels, with attacks launched from Darfur. Sudan has denied the allegations.
France recently reinforced its troops in the country to help the government counter the rebellion and to help secure the borders with Chad and Sudan.
"The time has come to make peace and work together for the reconstruction of our country," said UFDR military chief Damane Zakaria told the BBC.
A draft agreement says the UFDR will be recognised as a political party and will help manage the country.
A law will be passed extending amnesty to former rebel fighters.
More than 280,000 people have fled their homes in the past year - tens of thousands more have sought refuge across the border in Chad and Cameroon.
Last month, the UN reported that 90% of the population of Birao had fled the fighting - just 600 people remained.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CLERIC KILLED IN NIGERIA MOSQUE !

President's warning

A prominent Islamic cleric has been shot dead inside a mosque in the northern Nigerian city of Kano.
Ustaz Ja'afar Adam and one of his followers were killed at dawn prayers.
He was once a key member of the Kano State government but has fallen out with the governor. The killing could be political, or a dispute between sects.
The death comes as President Olusegun Obasanjo warned that the government will "deal firmly" with acts of fraud and violence in forthcoming elections.
In a national radio and TV broadcast, Mr Obasanjo said "highly placed individuals" were encouraging violence.
This is seen as a thinly veiled attack on Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who has fallen out with the president.
'Flashpoint'
Haruna Idris, one of Mr Adam's disciples, told the AFP news agency that gunmen had shot the cleric twice.
"The two assailants rushed out of the mosque and jumped into a car with a driver at the wheel and sped off," he said.

The biggest issue in the elections is the future of my children, the future of Nigeria's children
Eunice Folorunso

Election voices

Thousands of people had gathered at the mosque, AFP reports.
Mr Adam has been buried.
Police spokesman Haz Iwendi told the BBC News website that the killing "would not endanger tomorrow's elections in Kano."
"The shooting did not come completely as a surprise because Kano has always been a flashpoint of violence," he said.
Mr Adam is a member of the strict Saudi-backed Wahabbi strain of Islam and has also been involved in disputes with rival Islamic sects.
Earlier this week, two policemen were killed and 40 AK-47 assault rifles were stolen from a vandalised police station in the Sharada area of Kano.
BBC correspondents in Kano say already security has been beefed up in the north-western city with armed soldiers and riot police patrolling the streets.
'Thuggery'
In his national address, Mr Obasanjo said:
"It is a matter of great regret... that some supposedly highly placed individuals have been reported to be fanning the embers of discord, hatred, violence and destruction.

Police are on the alert to guard against campaign violence.
"Let me assure all Nigerians that the federal government will leave no stone unturned in vigorously checking [any] sanctioning [of] acts of violence and thuggery and other excesses calculated to disturb the peace or disrupt the elections."
Mr Abubakar is barred from running for president because of corruption charges, which he says are political.
He has gone to court, seeking to be allowed to run but the case has not been decided, with just eight days to go until presidential elections.
Mr Abubakar says Mr Obasanjo declared two days of public holiday on Thursday and Friday in order to further delay his court case.
Mr Obasanjo says the holidays were to enable people to travel to where they registered to vote.
Bomb
More than 100 people have died in election violence across Nigeria since last November, according to a recent report by Human Rights Watch.
Correspondents say tension is high in Ibadan, capital of south-western Oyo State, after killings at a political rally earlier in the week and extra soldiers have been deployed to the streets of the city.
In nearby Ondo State, a bomb exploded at a campaign office on Thursday. No-one was injured, police told AFP news agency.
Mr Obasanjo, who was re-elected in 2003, is standing down next month after eight years in power.
State legislative and governorship polls will be held on Saturday while the presidential and national assembly elections are due on April 21.
With Mr Abubakar's candidacy in doubt, the main contenders for president are the ruling party's Umaru Yar'Adua and former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP).

BBC NEWS REPORT.

LIBERIA SHUTS 'HIDE-OUT' CEMETRY !

Liberia shuts 'hide-out' cemetery
By Jonathan Paye-Laye BBC News, Monrovia.

The graveyard proved a good hiding place in the dark. The largest cemetery has been closed by the president because it is being used as a criminal hide-out.
It has become a favourite haunt for Monrovia's underworld after makeshift structures in the capital's slums were demolished and squatters evicted.
The assistant information minister said the graveyard had been turned into a drug den, which would not be tolerated.
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said the city centre Palm Grove Cemetery had also run out of space.
As part of a clean-up operation, she ordered that the cemetery not only be fenced in, but bodies buried on the pathways be exhumed and interred in proper graves.
Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf came to power last year promising to rebuild the nation after 14 years of civil war.
'Packed'
"It is illegal and improper for human beings to use a cemetery as a place to live," Gabriel Williams, Liberia's assistant information minister warned earlier in the week.
It is only at the cemetery we could freely smoke because there we couldn't be arrested
Joe-joe Kollie
"Some of them are criminals who claim that they do not have anywhere to live; and the reports from the cemeteries are unfavourable.
"Every measure of the law will be brought to bear on them."
One city centre resident put the number of people slipping in under the cover of darkness to sleep at the Palm Grove Cemetery at more than 100.
As police troops began to patrol the cemetery this week, many of its inhabitants fled.
Some graveyard dwellers were caught in an overnight raid on Monday.
"Normally I go to the cemetery in the morning and evening to smoke marijuana to get high," 24-year-old Joe-joe Kollie said from his prison cell.
"I used to smoke during the revolution. It is only at the cemetery we could freely smoke because there we couldn't be arrested," he said.
Former rebel fighter Chris Roberts was also detained.
"That's where I live. The place is packed with people," he said.
"Lots of things are there. As for me, I take in cocaine to get my real feeling. I have been taking cocaine since 1992 and at the cemetery it is sold much cheaper."
Following these revelations, Monrovia's city council says it is concluding plans to fence all cemeteries in the city.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

DATE SET FOR BOB WOOLMER INQUEST !

The inquest into the death of former Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer will take place on 23 April, the coroner's office in Kingston, Jamaica, has said.
Woolmer was found dead in his Kingston hotel on 18 March, the day after his side lost to Ireland in the World Cup.
Up to 20 people are expected to give evidence at the hearing in the Jamaica Conference Centre, reports say.
It is believed the ex-England batsman was strangled. His body remains in Jamaica pending the coroner's inquiry.
On Wednesday it emerged police probing Woolmer's murder sent CCTV images to the UK for further analysis.
Police help
The footage from the Kingston hotel was sent to Scotland Yard "for further consideration", Jamaica Police spokesman Karl Angell said without giving further details.
A team of four officers from Scotland Yard arrived in Jamaica last week to help with the inquiry, following a formal request from the Jamaican authorities.
Pakistan also sent as an observer senior police investigator Mir Zubair Mahmood, who led the investigation into the murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi.
He and another security official had come at the request of the Jamaican government, an official said.
Two forensic experts from Interpol, the France-based international police agency, have also been helping the investigation.
Jamaica's deputy police commissioner Mark Shields has said the foreign investigators will help with DNA analysis and also examine theories that Woolmer may have been poisoned before being strangled.
A memorial service for Woolmer was held in Cape Town, South Africa, last week, where Woolmer's wife and two sons live - another one was held in Pakistan earlier in the week.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

S.A. SEEKS TO SHARE 2010 WORLD CUP !

South Africa will be the first African country to host the World Cup.
South Africa is seeking a change in World Cup rules to allow visiting teams to be based in neighbouring countries during the 2010 finals.
Danny Jordaan, chief executive of the 2010 organising committee, said other African countries should be involved as much as possible in the continent's first World Cup.
"This is Africa's World Cup and we are making a case to Fifa for a change in the rules," Jordaan said.
Under existing rules, the 31 visiting teams can set up training camps outside the host country before the finals.
But they have to move to South Africa at least seven days before their opening match and remain there during the tournament.
Jordaan said organisers will ask Fifa to consider allowing teams to stay at bases in neighbouring countries and travel to South Africa on the day before their matches.
The bases would be within a 90-minute plane journey of the match venues.
Brazil might wish to stay in Portuguese-speaking Mozambique, he suggested, and Swaziland would be another suitable location for a training camp.
He said he believed Fifa would be sympathetic to the proposed rule change.
Jordaan said he expected some 350,000 to 450,000 overseas visitors and fans for the finals.
If fans followed their teams to bases in neighbouring countries, it would also ease pressure on accommodation in South Africa, he added.
Jordaan said measures would be put in place to ensure local fans, especially those from the townships, would not be priced out of the World Cup.
"There will be affordable tickets. There are many people who have supported the game for many years and they must have access to the event. Fifa understands this," he said.
But he said ticketing policies were unlikely to be decided by Fifa before next year and that they would have to take into account the problem of cheap match tickets being resold on the black market for several times their face value.
"This could also be a security issue if fans from one country end up in a part of the stadium where they were not expected," he said.
Jordaan said South Africa would ask Fifa to encourage teams to train in stadiums being set up in the townships as another means of bringing the World Cup to local fans.
Jordaan said South Africa also wanted to extend the highly successful use of fan parks with big screens at last year's finals in Germany for supporters without match tickets.
He said South Africa had asked Fifa if they could set up fan parks outside the stadiums, in the townships, in other cities not hosting matches, in other African countries and in all countries of the 31 visiting teams.
"Fifa have not come back on this yet," he added.
Jordaan said Africa's first World Cup had to be a successful event.
"We cannot afford to fail," he said. "It is in everyone's interest for this to be a success and we are going to work very hard to make it happen."

BBC SPORTS REPORT.

HUMAN ERROR 'CAUSED MAPUTO BLAST' !

Explosion footage

Human error was largely to blame for last month's explosions in the Mozambique capital which killed more than 100 people, a report says.
The commission of inquiry into the Maputo explosions blames poor storage conditions at the arsenal, a lack of inspection and high temperatures.
The president has ordered all obsolete weapons to be destroyed and arms depots to be moved to remote areas.
The government says it will spend some $12m rebuilding damaged homes.
Several hundred people were injured in the blasts, as the initial blasts caused further detonations.
It was the second time in less than two months that aging explosives in the arsenal have detonated.
Twenty tonnes of obsolete equipment left over from the long civil war had been awaiting destruction.
The weapons depot was near a poor, overcrowded suburb of the capital.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CHINA P.M. SEEKS WAR RECONCILIATION !

It was the first time a Chinese premier had addressed the Diet. Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has used a landmark address to the Japanese parliament, the Diet, to urge Japan to face up to its World War II actions.
In what was the first ever Diet address by a Chinese premier, he said Japan's invasions in the 1930s and 40s had caused China's people tremendous pain.
And he called for Japanese apologies to be matched by concrete actions.
However, he said just a few militarist leaders were to blame and that most Japanese people were also war victims.
Japan and China have been at odds in recent years over Japan's World War II aggression, and China has often accused Japan of not fully atoning for its actions.
Mr Wen's visit to Japan - the first in seven years by a Chinese premier - is being seen as an important step to get over the past and improve ties.
KEY ISSUES

History: Japan's neighbours often think it has not done enough to atone for wartime atrocities
Trade: Bilateral trade is growing strongly
North Korea: Japan often takes a tougher stance than China over the nuclear issue
East China Sea: Beijing and Tokyo disagree over the boundary between their exclusive economic zones
Security: Japan wants to revise is pacifist constitution, which concerns China. China's military expansion concerns Japan

Chinese press reacts to visit
Have Your Say: New dawn?

His Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, visited Beijing in October.
Mr Wen began his speech by stressing that he wanted to promote friendship and co-operation between China and Japan, but he focused on the two countries' difficulties over their shared history for much of his speech.
"Japan's invasions caused tremendous damage to the Chinese," Mr Wen said. "The deep scars left in the hearts of the Chinese people cannot be described."
The BBC's Chris Hogg in Tokyo says some commentators in Japan have interpreted that as a warning to Japan's prime minister, Mr Abe, not to visit the Yasukuni shrine honouring its war dead, which the Chinese believe glorifies militarism.
The last Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, visited the shrine many times as leader, leading the Chinese to refuse to hold bilateral meetings with him.
Mr Wen was positive though about the prospects for the two countries' future relationship, our correspondent says.
"The Chinese people want to exist in friendship with the Japanese people," he said, despite the "calamity" of Japan's World War II invasion of China.
Mr Wen said that "to reflect on history is not to dwell on hard feelings but to remember and learn from the past to open a better future".
Royal meeting
Mr Wen also had some strong words on the issue of Taiwan, whose bid for independence from China has found some support in Japan.
He reiterated China's position that it would never tolerate Taiwanese independence, but said he would strive to resolve the position peacefully.

Japan and China both have claims over gas deposits.
"We hope that Japan can understand the highly sensitive nature of the Taiwan issue, abide by its pledges and handle the issue prudently," he said.
He also said he hoped China and Japan could find a peaceful solution to their differences over who owns oil and gas reserves in the East China Sea and said that economic development is an opportunity not a threat.
The visit has started well, our correspondent says, with agreements signed on sharing technology to help save energy and to address environmental issues like climate change and China has agreed to resume imports of Japanese rice.
But several difficult issues remain, including the dispute over who owns oil and gas reserves buried under the East China Sea.
Japan accuses China of being secretive about its rapidly growing defence budget, while Beijing is wary of plans to revise Japan's pacifist constitution to make it easier to deploy troops.
Mr Wen is expected to meet the emperor and empress of Japan at the Imperial Palace later on Thursday before lunching with business leaders.
In the evening he will attend a reception to mark 35 years since the re-establishment of diplomatic ties between Tokyo and Beijing.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ALGERIAN PM DEFIANT AFTER BOMBS !

The attacks in Algiers are the worst in the capital for years. Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem says parliamentary polls will take place as planned next month despite two bombings in the capital.
The death toll has risen to 33, with 222 hurt in Wednesday's suicide attacks - one targeting Mr Belkhadem's office.
He said it was a deliberate provocation before the elections, adding that those who resort to violence exclude themselves from the political process.
A person claiming to be a spokesman for al-Qaeda said it organised the attack.
This is a crime, a cowardly act - Abdelaziz BelkhademAlgerian Prime Minister.

Profile: Maghreb al-Qaeda
In pictures: Algerian blasts
Blasts fuel regional fears
Bombs stir Mid-East press

There has been no independent verification of the claim.
The first attack was carried out by a bomber who drove a car laden with explosives into a guard post outside the prime minister's office.
Minutes later, men driving two cars triggered explosions at a police station in the eastern district of Bab Ezzouar, close to the international airport.
Loud explosion
The violence comes a day after the authorities in neighbouring Morocco said they had foiled a plot by suicide bombers to target foreign and strategic interests by suicide bombers.
Three suspects blew themselves up after being pursued by the authorities, and a fourth was shot dead by police. It also follows clashes with militants in Tunisia earlier this year.
Violent attacks have been increasing in Algeria since the main Islamist rebel group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), changed its name to the al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb in January.
Al-Jazeera TV said this was the group that claimed responsibility for Wednesday's violence.
BBC Arab Affairs analyst Magdi Abdelhadi says many analysts will link the surge in violence with the ambitions of the Algerian hardline organisation to spread its campaign to neighbouring countries.
The city centre explosion was so loud it could be heard up to 10km (six miles) away, residents said.
Government employees were injured by flying glass and debris, which spread up to 300m (yards) from the site of the blasts.
Ambulances went to the scene and police blocked entry to the prime minister's office, which also houses the offices of the interior minister.
Alarm bells
Our analyst says the attacks are a serious blow for the Algerian authorities which have for years fought Islamist militants.
Despite an amnesty announced two years ago, the violence in Algeria has never completely died down since its height in the mid-1990s.
The latest violence will revive painful memories of that civil strife that lasted for a decade and left an estimated 150,000 people dead.
Magdi Abdelhadi says the spectre of a resurgent al-Qaeda operating in North Africa, close to Europe's southern border, will send the alarm bells ringing in European capitals.
It may also have a devastating impact on the prospect of more open and democratic societies in the region.
He says that as in other Arab states, the authorities have used the threat of terror in the past to curb civil and political freedoms.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

PROFILE : AL-QAEDA IN NORTH AFRICA !

The al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb has evolved out of the most feared Algerian militant group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).
Created in the late 1990s with the aim of establishing an Islamic state in the former French colony, the GPSC waged a campaign of violence after the 1992 annulment of elections which Islamic groups were poised to win.
Some 150,000 died in more than a decade of insurgency but by early last year, its military capacity had been hit by the security forces and it was confined to the mountains east of the capital, Algiers.
It rejected an amnesty being offered by the Algerian government and in September the Islamist group joined forces with al-Qaeda, taking the new name in January.
News of its rebirth was greeted by al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri as "a source of chagrin, frustration and sadness" for Algeria's authorities.
Their leader is Abou Mossab Abdelwadoud, a former university science student and famous bomb maker

Bombings stir Mid-East press

Following the devastating suicide attacks in the capital, the prime minister has warned the bombers want to take Algeria back to "the years of hardship".
Indeed, in the last few months the group has made its mark, targeting buses in Algiers carrying foreign workers from an affiliate of the US company Halliburton in December and a bus carrying Russian workers in March.
Six people were killed and 13 injured in seven explosions outside police stations in the eastern Kabylia region in February and 33 Algerian soldiers are reported to have lost their lives this month.
Regional ambitions
Other incidents across the Maghreb point to the group's possible regional ambitions.

This group trained in Algeria and have learned their techniques from Iraq as well as in Afghanistan
Mohamed Ben-Madani Maghreb analyst
In January, 12 people were shot dead by the security forces in Tunisia near the small town of Solimane south of the capital Tunis.
The authorities initially described their adversaries as criminals but later admitted that the men were Islamic militants with connections to the GSPC.
Meanwhile, in Morocco, the security forces are on high alert after three suicide bombers blew themselves up on Tuesday.
Maghreb analyst Mohamed Ben-Madani says the militants have also been active in Mauritania, which has angered Islamists because of its links with Israel.
"This group trained in Algeria and have learned their techniques from Iraq as well as in Afghanistan. It's very hard to contain this group which has become more and more violent," he says.
Roots
Their leader is Abou Mossab Abdelwadoud, a former university science student and famous bomb maker in his thirties, who took over in 2004.

Mokhtar Belmokhtar is known as the "one-eyed".
Another leading member is Mokhtar Belmokhtar, known as the "one-eyed", a former soldier who followed the familiar route for radical young Muslims and went to fight in Afghanistan.
He leads the Saharan faction of the group and has organised the importing of arms for the underground network from Niger and Mali.
Since the rise of al-Qaeda globally, security experts have warned that the Sahara's wide open spaces and porous borders make it a haven for militant groups.
The group is thought to have between 600 to 800 fighters spread throughout Algeria and Europe.
But during last year's six-month reconciliation amnesty, dozens of Islamists who were freed from Algerian prisons have returned to their armed uprising.
The Arabic word "Salafist" means fundamentalist, in the sense of going back to the original texts of Islam.
The GSPC grew out of another of Algeria's leading militant groups, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), and together the groups are blamed for some 150,000 deaths since 1992.
Two years ago, deputy GSPC leader Amari Saifi was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping 32 European tourists in 2003.
The former paratrooper was captured by Chadian rebels in mysterious circumstances and passed on to Libya before standing trial in Algeria.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

EECTION DIARY : 'TOUR DE FRANCE' !

With France's presidential candidates now into the frantic final fortnight before the first round of voting on 22 April, BBC Paris correspondent Caroline Wy