"NO FOOD NO CLOTHES AND NO WAY HOME" !

A British teacher has told how she and her family including her newborn baby were forced from their home in Kisumu, scene of some of the worst violence to follow Kenya's disputed presidential election.
In an interview with BBC News 24, Alison Rogers, 42, also said the school she ran with her husband had been burned down and there seemed to be no way out of town.

Alison Rogers said looting had left the town without food.
We had our whole business burned down.
We have nothing left there and this morning we had a lot of people at the gate trying to break the gate down to the house.
We phoned the police. The police brought tear gas down and helped us to get to a hotel where I am with my family at the moment.
It's very, very terrifying and made all the more so because we have a three-week-old baby with us.
We have no papers, no documents. In the panic of leaving the house this morning we did not even manage to grab clothes for her so it was a horrible situation arriving in a hotel with no clothes, even for the baby.
At the moment, the British Embassy [in Nairobi] are just giving advice to stay put.
They said there was no fuel anywhere around so they can't get vehicles in or out.
We do feel a bit safer in this hotel at the moment so that's a bit easier.
We were looking after another two [local] families with young children in our house this morning, who are in a terrifying position.
Their houses have been burnt. They had run to us and now we have run on to this hotel. They can't afford this hotel.
It's critical for many, many people in this country at the moment.
Temporarily we can't safely get to the airport and we don't know how many flights there are a day out of Kisumu.
We are told there's one tonight but it's fully booked.
Even trying to get to the airport is a very frightening proposition. People can stone the cars or burn the cars or even kill people en route.
We expected a little bit of trouble around the election but nobody expected it on this scale
We are in a better position than a lot of people in that we have got the possibility, when things calm down a little bit, we will be able to leave the country.
They've looted all the shops. There is no food anywhere in Kisumu. Getting hold of any food is almost impossible.
All the lorries have been stopped. There is nothing on the roads so food can't come into the area.
It's completely surprised lots and lots of people. We expected a little bit of trouble around the election - I think a lot of people stayed in around the election day - but nobody expected it on this scale.
So many people are so frustrated they feel the elections have not been fair, have not been carried out right.
They are very frustrated with the democracy that's been on display here.
People are not feeling that their voice has been heard properly. They are not feeling the results have been fair at all.
Over the next couple of days things are going to become very desperate unless the government can take control very quickly.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

BODIES POINT TO ALASKA'S PAST !

By Richard Black - Environment correspondent, BBC News website, Alaska.

The Nuvuk site is a snowmobile ride away from modern-day Barrow. It is not the type of a call that an archaeologist receives every day.
There are bodies, the voice on the end of the line told Anne Jensen; we don't know who they were, or why they are here.
"People started noticing stuff eroding out of the bluff," she recalls, "and I got called out, along with the police, the real estate people and so on.
"It was very clearly an archaeological burial. And the bluff was collapsing quickly, so we just got the contents out."
The bluff lies virtually at the end of the Americas, on a narrow, hooked spit projecting northwards from Barrow. It marks the join of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, and is prey to the temperamental vagaries of both.
Now known as Point Barrow, the settlement on it was Nuvuk for at least 1,000 years, a spot presumably chosen because of its proximity to the migration path of bowhead whales which would become the cultural and nutritional centre of Nuvuk life.
These bodies, these bones, clearly came from no crime scene. The police could leave, and Dr Jensen's team could get to work on a find more closely related to its own interests. It has been working every summer since.
When I visit in late May, the spit itself is virtually invisible beneath the blanket of ice which carpets land and sea alike.
Led by Laura Taylor, we speed out on to the ice on snowmobiles, bodies swathed in heavy-duty parkas and feet wrapped in "bunny boots" which include a layer of air to insulate the delicate extremities.
We traverse cracks created as the sea-borne ice rides up and down on the tide. We pass a couple of umiaq, traditional sealskin whaling boats left out on the ice, and every so often a scientific instrument or two, testimony to the extraordinary richness of Barrow's research tapestry.
After perhaps 20 minutes we disembark at the point, the site of ancient Nuvuk. The higher level of ice is a clue that we are on land, and grey-brown late Spring melt mush materialises beneath our feet as we walk, to prove the case.
Here, at the edge, is Anne Jensen's bluff, where bodies began appearing a decade ago. Or at least, here is where it is now; then it was 100 metres or further from the sea.
"We've had a lot of changing in currents over the past decade or so," explains Dr Taylor, "and with the changing currents and increased storm activity in the fall especially, it's undercutting the gravels and the point is literally washing out into the ocean."
And as the point washes out, so do the bodies. What used to be an accreting spit - one building up - has become an eroding spit as the coastal ebbs and flows have changed their seasonal patterns, perhaps at the behest of global climate change.
"It's eroding at about 20m per year; we only have an eight-week field season, and we need to cover at least 300m of shore," she says.
"So it's salvage archaeology - we have to beat the erosion."

The team uncovers about 20 complete burials each year. The methodology now involves digging exploration holes every few metres in a lattice pattern - "Swiss-cheesing", as Laura Taylor calls it - and excavating the newly identified burial sites.
Most of the bodies were interred in a rough framework made of wood or whale bones, with a piece of driftwood on top; some were also wrapped in animal skin or fur.

Whalebone tools for making nets have been found in Nuvuk burialsArtefacts have also surfaced, making suggestions about how people lived in Nuvuk. Here, a body holds an ulu, a traditional knife used for taking blubber from whale carcasses; there, a grave gives up weights from a bolus which would have been used to hunt birds.
There is armour made from whale baleen. Many of the graves also contain flat stones, which presumably have some kind of ceremonial purpose.
Researchers can also call on human memory and lore, because Nuvuk retained human inhabitants until about 60 years ago.
And although the houses have gone, Ukpeagvik, in the middle of what is now Barrow, has been an important site for studying remains of dwellings from the same period and culture; dwellings of impressive complexity built with subterranean cold-traps, entrance tunnels supported by whale mandibles, and insulation by sod.

But what period and culture does Nuvuk represent?
Clearly it was complex enough 1,000 years ago to support whaling, an activity which needs great co-ordination within the community. Crews must organise hunting, villagers must turn out for a swift butchering, meat must be stored, seals caught to make umiaq, and trading enacted to bring in caribou meat and driftwood.
"I think these are very early Thule people," opines Anne Jensen.
"One of the big questions is where did the Thule come from? The culture was first described in the eastern Arctic, and it's clearly the ancestor of the modern Inupiat and Inuit cultures; but where did it develop?"

The Thule period succeeded earlier Arctic cultures such as the Birnirk and Punuk. And Dr Jensen now believes she may be sitting on or close to the very first Thule settlement.
"My idea is it started somewhere in northern Alaska, perhaps in a major whaling area; and it doesn't seem to stop, moving from place to place looking for whales."
A community organised for whaling, she believes, would have had an edge over competing cultures. The social hierarchy and regular experiences of mass mobilisation would have made for organised defence and perhaps attack too, while a diet rich in whalemeat meant better nutrition.
Laura Taylor believes you can draw a direct line between the Thule culture and the modern Inupiat, the traditional residents of Barrow and many settlements around. And the line, she says, is drawn in whalemeat.
"Whaling is the keystone; it's what everything in the culture is organised around," she says.
"It is the defining element of what makes Thule Thule, and in modern times, what makes Inupiat Inupiat."

When the first bodies washed out of the sea-battered bluff a decade ago, interest was high, but funding to excavate and examine stubbornly low.
That has changed; and since 2005, the researchers have received grants from Echo, a US federal programme aiming to give high school students a regular taste of real science.
The students spend several weeks digging alongside researchers, which given the shortness of the digging season and the necessity of getting the bodies out fast would be described as a dawn-to-dusk job, if the north Alaskan summer had dawns or dusks rather than 24-hour sunlight.

Flags are used to mark locations meriting a closer look. Some, such as Ben Frantz II, come back for more.
"I thought it would be pretty cool to see how my ancestors lived," the fresh-faced 19-year-old Inupiat tells me.
"Originally it was just a job; but as it turned out we started working on weekends and it was kind of fun, so I decided to stay for a while."
Now employed as a research assistant, his main task is to catalogue artefacts - arrowheads, harpoon shafts, scrapers, tools, and sled runners.
So much has been recovered that he is still working on artefacts unearthed in 2005. But, he says, it has been a worthwhile experience.
"It's changed my view of my own culture. I used to think that my ancestors were really smart, but I never knew they achieved so much."
As the Point Barrow bluff erodes, the rescue mission will presumably continue. Bodies will be snatched from the ocean's grasp each short summer, examined and catalogued before a new internment in the safer soils of modern Barrow.
Each body is a fragment of the town's past, a reminder of the long history of whale-centred culture which binds the threads of a millennium. They are treasures which neither the Barrow community nor its modern scientific boarders are minded to let wash away.
Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS" !

"WELL DONE IS BETTER THAN

WELL SAID" !

BODIES LAID OUT ON MORTUARY FLOOR !

By Noel Mwakugu - BBC News, Kisumu.

Police were deployed to deal with protests at the weekend. Outside the mortuary in the Nyanza Provincial Hospital, to the west of the city of Kisumu, a small angry crowd had gathered on Monday morning.
They had come after hearing that dozens of bodies had been taken there by police overnight and in the early morning.
Inside the main room in the mortuary, I counted 43 bodies - mostly young men, two women and three children.
They had been brought in after a night of violence, blamed on the disputed presidential election.
Mortuary attendants were quietly moving among the bodies, which had been laid on the floor in a single row.
None of them had been covered - some of the men were topless, others were naked.

One man said that police had fired indiscriminately, even after protesters had started running away All of the bodies had sustained at least one gunshot wound, in the legs, chest, stomach and back. One man had been hit by a bullet in the head.
A woman had been laid next to a child, presumably her daughter.
Outside, I spoke to one man who had witnessed their deaths. He said that police had fired indiscriminately, even after protesters had started running away. The woman and her daughter were both hit by the bullets.
Police chief Grace Kahindi said she had no knowledge of any deaths.

There are fears that news of all of the shootings might spark more anger in the city and its suburbs.
The streets of Kisumu - Kenya's third largest city and a stronghold of opposition leader Raila Odinga - are almost deserted. Police in full riot gear are patrolling in their vehicles.
Shops and business remain closed and the water supply to the city has been cut. Many people have moved out to the suburbs.
Following last night's sporadic shooting, barricades built from boulders, trees and tyres have been built across the roads leading to the suburbs.
Small groups of young men are keeping watch for the riot police.
The mood is sombre, mixed with anger.
One man told me that peopled wanted to know why the government was killing them for demanding their rights.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

BRANSON TELLS STRIKERS TO RESIGN !

Virgin Atlantic is a key transatlantic carrier operating from main airports. Sir Richard Branson has told Virgin Atlantic staff who are threatening to strike over a wage deal offered by the airline to consider working elsewhere.
In a letter to 4,800 cabin crew, the Virgin boss warned he would not be meeting pay demands.
Workers' union Unite called the letter from Sir Richard "provocative".
It comes after union members voted to strike in January in protest over pay levels they say are lower than at other airlines, including British Airways.
The 48-hour strikes are scheduled for 9 and 10 January, and 16 and 17 January.
The strikes are not the only industrial action scheduled by aviation workers for January.
Union members at airport operator BAA are set to cause mass disruption at some of the UK's largest airports on three other dates next month.

In his letter, Sir Richard said Virgin Atlantic had "drawn a line in the sand" over pay this year.
"To go further would result in unacceptable risks and would set a dangerous precedent to the company as a whole," he added.
"It would be irresponsible of our management and they, rightly, are not going to take that risk."
Sir Richard admitted that rival airlines often offered better basic wages but said that they did not offer the perks that came with working for a "smaller, more friendly" company.
"For some of you, more pay than Virgin Atlantic can afford may be critical to your lifestyle and if that is the case you should consider working elsewhere," Sir Richard said.
Virgin Atlantic has previously said that there would be no "eleventh hour change to our pay offer".
The airline said its offer was worth 8.3% on basic pay over two years, with a 4.8% increase offered in the first year.

A Unite spokesperson said the letter was "unhelpful in resolving the dispute" and would "only make people more upset".
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said that since the letter was sent, a number of union members had contacted management offering to cross the picket line and work on the strike days.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

DEEP DIVISIONS OVER US GUN CONTROL !

By Jane O'Brien - BBC News, Washington.

Gun control is expected to become a hot topic for the US presidential election as the Supreme Court prepares to rule on a controversial handgun ban in the nation's capital.

Richard Heller says people have a right to defend their lives. For the last 31 years Washington DC has prohibited ownership of handguns in an attempt to curb high levels of violent crime. But security guard Richard Heller has challenged the law, claiming that it denied residents the right to defend themselves.
"An event happened in 1997 when a young man defended his life with a handgun against a criminal who had gotten into his house, and the city prosecuted him," says Mr Heller.
"This could happen to anyone and that's not what we have a government for - to hurt the people. But that's the effect of the gun ban. It makes people victims who have a right to defend their lives - and that's a constitutional right."

The Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights has always been open to interpretation - partly because of its peculiar and hence controversial punctuation.
It reads: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed."
Some experts say it implies a collective right to defence through gun control while others say it guarantees individual freedom.
In March, a district court agreed with Mr Heller that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to keep and bear arms and that the city's ban was unconstitutional.
The city appealed against the ruling and the Supreme Court will now decide what the 200-year-old Second Amendment really means.
"It's a clash of cultures," says constitutional law expert Professor Randy Barnett of the Georgetown University Law Center.
"It's the culture of individual self-defence as a protection against crime versus the culture of collective defence brought to you by government police departments.
"On the one hand you have a culture of self-defence in which firearms enable us to protect ourselves. And on the other side, at least since the sixties, there has been a culture of using gun control to address the problem of violent crime.
"People who favour this think it's absolutely essential there be controls on the rights of people to keep and bear arms or that people should be denied that right altogether in the interest of preventing crime."

According to the DC Metropolitan Police Department, there have been some 180 murders this year, up on last year's total of 169, a 20-year low.
The vast majority of the homicides were committed with a gun.
Police commander Michael Anzallo says the capital has seen an influx of handguns from neighbouring states where there are fewer controls.

Washington DC has banned handguns for 31 years"The police department recovers more than 1,000 guns a year," he says.
"The problem is easy access to firearms. Most of the motives for homicides are arguments or robbery related and the quick pull of the trigger means somebody's life."
In Washington's notorious SE district, gun crime has blighted the community.
At a youth centre run by the outreach group Peaceoholics, every teenager knows somebody who has been shot. Most have been threatened with guns or have been made victims themselves.
"A lot of my friends and a lot of people I really loved have been killed by guns," says 18-year-old Carlos.
"A number of incidents happened in the summer when one of my good friends got killed while she was sitting in somebody's car. She got shot in the back of the neck. She was just at the wrong place at the wrong time."
Peaceoholics spokesman Daniel Bradley says gun controls are essential to protect the community.
"We've been fighting violence enough in the last 15 or 20 years and repealing the gun ban will just make things a lot worse," he says.
"You're saying we should make it easier to access guns in a place where over a six month span this year we had 16 girls shot and six died? When you put it like that it doesn't make any sense at all."

But gun rights supporters say the issue goes much further than crime and self-defence and raises fundamental questions about the extent of government in the US.
"Guns may not be necessary for everyone but I don't think that the government should tell me I can't do something," says Ben Meyer, an instructor at the Blue Ridge Arsenal in Virginia.
"I'm actually intelligent enough to make my own decisions, and that includes matters of my self defence. What you're assuming, by restricting guns, is that a person isn't capable of handling one or that they are going to break the law, and I think that's a little bit ridiculous."
"This is about the government suppressing the citizens," says Mr Heller.
"I simply thought, gee, let's take this to court and let them settle it, and any intelligent, reasonable set of judges would make the right decision for the people, knowing what the rights of the people are, and knowing the limitations the government is supposed to have."
The Supreme Court will discuss the issue in the New Year but a ruling is not expected for several months.
Surveys estimate that there are 90 guns for every 100 citizens in the US, making the country one of the most heavily-armed nations in the world.
Whatever the Supreme Court decides will have implications for gun control across the country.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

SCORES DEAD IN KENYA POLL CLASHES !

There has also been violence in Nairobi and Mombasa.
Violent protests

Scores of people have been killed across Kenya in violence blamed on the disputed presidential election. A BBC reporter has seen 43 bodies with gunshot wounds in a mortuary in the opposition stronghold of Kisumu. A witness said police shot protesters. There have been running battles in Nairobi slums. The local KTN television station says 124 have died nationwide. President Mwai Kibaki has been declared the winner but Raila Odinga says he was robbed of victory by election fraud.

See how the vote was split around the country

There have been violent clashes in slums in the resort town of Mombasa and several other towns around the country.

'Bodies laid out on floor'
'I chartered a plane to flee'
Tension rises after polls

The AFP news agency quotes police as saying that 40 people have been killed in Nairobi. There have been running battles in the slum of Kibera, between police firing live rounds and teargas and protesters armed with clubs and machetes. Large numbers of paramilitary police have been put on stand-by by the government.

In other developments:
European Union election observers have raised doubts about the officially announced results
The government has banned live broadcasts linked to the election
The police have banned a planned alternative inauguration ceremony to be held in central Nairobi for Mr Odinga
The police have urged people to stay away from central Nairobi
Mr Odinga said there was no difference between Mr Kibaki and "military dictators who have seized power through the barrel of the gun"
Those killed in Kisumu include two women and three children, reports the BBC's Noel Mwakugu.
An eye-witness told him that police fired indiscriminately, even after the protesters started running away in the Kisumu suburbs of Manyatta and Nyamasira.

OFFICIAL RESULTS

Mwai Kibaki (pictured): 4,584,721 votes
Raila Odinga: 4,352,993
Kalonzo Musyoka: 879,903

Kibaki: Dream or nightmare?
Odinga: King-maker

Local police chief Grace Kahindi said she had no knowledge of any deaths. A daytime curfew (0600-1800 local time, 0300-1500 GMT) has been imposed in the town. "Police have been ordered to shoot violators," an unnamed senior police official told AFP. There have also reports of trouble in Bungoma, Busia, Eldoret, Kericho and Kakamega. The violence was stoked by opposition claims that the results were rigged. Some of the violence has taken an ethnic dimension. The Luo community are seen as pro-Odinga, while the Kikuyus are seen as supporters of Mr Kibaki. AFP reports that supporters of the president have been celebrating in the streets of towns in the Central Province - Mr Kibaki's home region.

Results changed
The police have cordoned off Nairobi's Uhuru Park, where Mr Odinga's supporters had planned to hold a rival swearing-in ceremony. The police have warned officials of Mr Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement they will be arrested if they turn up. Chief EU election observer Alexander Graf Lambsdorff told the BBC that his monitors had been barred from counting centres in the Central Province. He also said that results from one constituency had been declared by the Electoral Commission of Kenya in Nairobi, which were different from those announced in the same constituency at local level.

He said the anomalies amounted to 20,000-25,000 votes in just one constituency.Mr Kibaki's national margin of victory was 230,000 votes. "I myself have seen forms which have been changed and no-one could tell me who had done the changes," he said. "Interestingly enough, all the changes favoured the same candidate." Elections chief Samuel Kivuitu has admitted some problems, including a reported voter turnout of 115% in one constituency, reports the AP news agency.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

KENYA'S KIBAKI TOLD TO CONCEDE !

Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga has called on President Mwai Kibaki to admit defeat in national elections.
He accused Mr Kibaki of electoral fraud and described the counting process as "deeply flawed".
The count has been halted while the country's electoral commission reviews dozens of disputed results.
The delays prompted allegations of vote rigging and sparked violence, amid reports that three people had died.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

LIFE AFTER ORANGE PRIZE SUCCESS !

By Fiona Pryor - Entertainment reporter, BBC News.

Adichie started writing at the age of six. Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was named 2007's winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction in June. Despite scooping one of the UK's most prestigious literary prizes, the 30-year-old insists her life has not changed much. "The only thing that Orange did was make more readers aware of my work who probably would not have heard of me. "So now I get more e-mails from different parts of the world," she says. Adichie's novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, is her second work and is set during the Biafran War of the 1960s.

Thinking back to the moment when her name was called out, Adichie says she was surprised to take home the award. "I wanted to win, but because I thought I wouldn't and because I had been told that I was the bookies' favourite, I thought it was a bad sign. "I had really psyched myself into expecting not to win in case I didn't. "For a minute I didn't know what to think and then I realised how happy I was," she says.

Even though Odoh Okonyedo, the literary editor of Nigeria's Weekly Trust, had hailed Adichie as "the new face of Nigerian literature", the writer says winning was a sort of "validation" for her work. Becoming the youngest winner to date and the first from Africa also made this an extra special achievement for Adichie. However, after taking the £30,000 prize money, the author says she is not interested in winning any more literary awards.

"Prize winning is nice but it's never been my goal. My goal is to write better and to write my next book and have it be better and to mean something to people who read it," she says. "I realised how horribly subjective prizes are and so I never write with prizes in mind." Adichie, who began writing at the age of six, has certainly come a long way since her early days as a writer."I remember my first rejection making me hopelessly depressed until I realised that it's part of it. You can't be a writer and not have rejection," she says.

Despite sounding humble she does admit to the temptation of writing "nasty letters" to those agents who rejected her but so far has managed to restrain herself. It is clear how much writing means to Adichie and running out of ideas is not what bothers her. "What I do worry about sometimes is something happening to me that would make it impossible for me to write, because I don't know that I would want to live if I couldn't write," she says. "I'm very much committed to my writing and it's what matters the most to me. I think I'm doing what I would have done if I hadn't won the Orange."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

BROWN PROMISES 'SERIOUS CHANGES' !

Gordon Brown has used his New Year message to say 2008 will be a year of "real and serious changes" in the UK.
The prime minister said combating the threat posed by terrorism was crucial and there would be "measurable changes in public services" over the next year.
The government would see through reforms in "vital areas" such as secure energy, pensions and health, he said.
In his message, Tory leader David Cameron said the Conservatives were an alternative to "hopeless" Labour.

Meanwhile, Jack Straw, one of Mr Brown's closest cabinet colleagues, has warned that the Conservative's campaign is "resonating" with the public and the government must "adapt" and show "clear progress" if it is to hold on to power.
The justice secretary told the Sunday Times that he accepted that the prime minister had faced difficulties in recent months that had to be put right.

New Year message in full

Giving his first New Year message since becoming prime minister, Mr Brown said: "With important legislation making long-term changes in energy, climate change, health, pensions, planning, housing, education and transport, 2008 will be a year of measurable changes in public services.
"A year for stepping up major long-term reform to meet challenges ranging from globalisation and global warming to the great unfinished business of social reform in our country."
Mr Brown, who became prime minister in June after Tony Blair stepped down, also said tackling the global credit problem was an "immediate priority" and a challenge for every economy.
The prime minister said the government would "continue to work with our international partners to counter the ongoing threat of global terrorism".
"We will not shirk but see through changes and reforms in the vital areas for our future - secure energy, pensions, transport, welfare, education, health and national security," he added.

Meanwhile, Mr Cameron used his New Year's message to commit himself to working as if there would be a general election in 2008, even though he believed there would not be one.
He said his party now offered a "clear and credible alternative" to what he described as a "hopeless and incompetent Labour government".
"I want 2008 to be the year in which we offer the people of this country the hope of real change, by setting out a clear and inspiring vision of what Britain will look like with a Conservative government," he said.
The Tories would offer safer communities through police reform and more prison places, as well as "the hope of a decent education for every child" with radical reforms of the school system, he said.

Mr Straw, who ran the prime minister's leadership campaign, told the Sunday Times that these Conservative messages "have been resonating" with voters and that the key for Labour was showing the public that it was making "decisions that are relevant to their futures and not just resting on our laurels".
"All periods are crucial in government - and up to two-and-a-half years before the next election, which is a long time - but for sure we have got to make clear progress in the next year and everybody understands that," he added.
Since taking over as prime minister, Mr Brown's fortunes have fluctuated.
He enjoyed initial success in the opinion polls after dealing with a number of high-profile issues, ranging from a foot-and-mouth outbreak to an attempted terror attack. But his popularity has faltered in recent months.
He was widely criticised for appearing indecisive about calling a general election and his government has been hit in recent months by revelations of alleged impropriety in Labour party funding, as well as the loss of discs containing the personal details of 25 million people.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS" !

"SOME FOLKS ARE WISE,

AND SOME ARE OTHERWISE" !

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS SUCCESS TIP !

Only 25% of people succeeded in quitting smoking. Most of us will make a New Year's resolution - maybe to quit smoking or lose weight - but only one in 10 of us will succeed, say researchers. But before you give up altogether, it is possible to boost your chances of success, UK psychologists report.
A year-long study of 3,000 people found men should set specific goals and women should tell the world about their resolution if they are to succeed.
And the key for everyone is not to leave the decision to New Year's Eve.

TIPS FOR SUCCESS
Men should set specific goals
Women should tell others about their resolution
Choose a new approach
Do not leave the decision to New Year's Eve

Study leader Professor Richard Wiseman, who is based at the University of Hertfordshire, found more than half of those in the study believed they would be able to stick to their resolution.
But by the end of the year, just 12% had been successful.
Giving up smoking seemed to be the hardest goal to stick to, with three-quarters of people lighting up again in the New Year.
Only 28% of people succeeded in losing weight and 29% of people who vowed to improve their fitness managed to do so.

Men were 22% more likely to succeed when they set goals for themselves, such as losing a pound a week rather than just saying they wanted to lose weight.
Telling others increased women's chance of keeping resolutions by 10%.
They benefited from family and friends encouraging them to stick to their goals.
Professor Wiseman said it was possible to increase the likelihood you will keep your resolution.
"Deciding to revisit a past resolution sets you up for frustration and disappointment.
"Choose something new, or approach an old problem in a new way.
"Think through exactly what you will do, where you will do it, and at what time."
He said those who made vague plans were more likely to fail - for example instead of planning to go running twice a week you should plan to go running at specific times every week.
He added: "Men may be more likely to adopt a macho attitude and have unrealistic expectations, and so simple goal setting helps them achieve more.
"Likewise, women might be reluctant to tell others about their resolutions, and so benefit more from the social support provided by friends and family once they have made their goals public."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

POLICE DISARMED IN MEXICAN TOWN !

Drug gangs are strong in Mexico's border region. The Mexican army has confiscated guns from the entire police force of the town of Rosarito, near the Mexican border with the US. Mexican authorities suspect that the town's police have been colluding with drug trafficking gangs.
Mexican troops carried out a similar crackdown in January on Tijuana police.
The Rosarito force's 200 guns will be examined to see whether any were used in an attack on the town's police chief earlier this month.
One of his bodyguards was killed in the attack.

"We recognise that the enemy is inside our house and for this reason we are purging the ranks - we need to have confidence in our police," Baja California state police chief Daniel de la Rosa said.
Drug gangs are strong in Mexico's border region, which includes Rosarito, a beach resort town south of Tijuana.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has deployed about 25,000 troops to the region, and to the western state of Michoacan, since taking office 12 months ago.
Some 2,500 people have died so far in 2007 in turf wars between rival Mexican drugs gangs.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

KENYAN COUNT HALTED AMID UNREST!

The delay in vote results has sparked disorder on the streets. Kenya's knife-edge election result has been delayed amid chaotic scenes at the offices of the electoral commission.
There were scuffles at the counting centre in Nairobi as party rivals demanded recounts of Thursday's vote, amid claims of rigging.
Officials suspended the count until Sunday. The delays have already sparked violence and looting across Kenya.
The lead of opposition candidate, Raila Odinga, 62, over President Mwai Kibaki, 76, has dwindled to under 40,000 votes.
While the candidates are neck-and-neck, the election has seen a clear rejection of Mr Kibaki's government, with about 20 ministers losing their seats.
With almost 90% of votes tallied in 180 out of a total 210 constituencies, the Electoral Commission gave Mr Odinga 3.88m votes to Mr Kibaki's 3.84m.
Mr Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement has held the lead since vote counting began after the poll but has since seen his advantage evaporate.

In pictures: Vote unrest

Chaotic scenes erupted at the count in Nairobi on Saturday afternoon, when election chair Samuel Kivuitu announced results that largely cancelled out much of Mr Odinga's lead.
As rival party agents clashed, paramilitary police had to rush in and restore order.
Mr Kivuitu told politicians: "Nobody can push me, not even you!" He added: "We are Kenyans, not beasts."
The BBC's Karen Allen in Nairobi says Mr Kivuitu has outlined a number of electoral irregularities that have dogged the process.
These include returning officers vanishing due to intimidation and a case in one constituency of turnout being higher than the number of registered voters.
Mr Kibaki's Party of National Unity said it would wait for the official results, and urged officials to speed up the count.

Kibaki: Dream or nightmare?
Odinga: King-maker

Both sides have raised allegations of vote rigging and rioting has broken out in some opposition strongholds.
There were also reports of trouble in Kisumu, Bungoma, Busia, Eldoret, Kericho and Kakamega.
Police have fired tear gas and gunshots into the air to disperse angry demonstrators who lit bonfires, set up roadblocks and even burned down homes.
Several people have died in the violence, including a man shot dead in a row at a polling station in western Nyanza province, police said.
"They want to steal votes. They are counting votes from regions favouring Kibaki and then they want to declare him the winner," said one protester, Peter Oduor.

Much of the violence was enacted along ethnic lines, with Luo supporters of Mr Odinga clashing with members of Mr Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe.
An Electoral Commission spokesman told the BBC that turnout had perhaps been more than 70%, from an electorate of 14m.
Results so far show a majority of MPs have lost their seats.
Kenyan parliamentarians gained notoriety in the past five years for arbitrarily increasing their salaries and allowances, while a majority of Kenyans continued to grapple with meagre wages and a high cost of living.
Vice-President Moody Awori was one of about 20 ministers who lost their seats.
The vote also saw three sons of retired president Daniel Arap Moi lose their seats in three different constituencies in the Rift Valley province.
Mr Moi has helped fund Mr Kibaki's campaign. If he loses, Mr Kibaki, who came to power with a landslide victory in 2002, will be Kenya's first sitting president ousted at the ballot box.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

'AL-QAEDA PLOT' TRANSCRIPT !

The Pakistani government has released a transcript of a purported conversation between militant leader Baitullah Mehsud and another man identified as a Maulvi Sahib. The government alleges the tapped conversation proves al-Qaeda was behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

Maulvi Sahib: Peace be on you.
Mehsud: Peace be on you, too.
Maulvi Sahib: How are you Emir Sahib?
Mehsud: Fine.
Maulvi Sahib: Congratulations. I arrived now, tonight.
Mehsud: Congratulations to you, too.
Maulvi Sahib: They were our men there.
Mehsud: Who were they?
Maulvi Sahib: There were Saeed, the second was Badarwala Bilal and Ikramullah was also there. Mehsud: The three did it?
Maulvi Sahib: Ikramullah and Bilal did it.
Mehsud: Then congratulations to you again.
Maulvi: Where are you? I want to meet with you?
Mehsud: I am in Makin. Come, I am at Anwar Shah's home.
Maulvi Sahib: OK, I will come.
Mehsud: Do not inform their family presently.
Maulvi Sahib: Right.
Mehsud: It was a spectacular job. They were very brave boys who killed her.
Maulvi Sahib: Praise be to God. I will give you more details when I come.
Mehsud: I will wait for you. Congratulation once again.
Maulvi Sahib: Congratulations to you as well.
Mehsud: Any service?
Maulvi Sahib: Thank you very much.
Mehsud: Peace be on you.
Maulvi Sahib: Same to you.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

S. AFRICA FACES TURBULENT 2008 !

By Peter Biles BBC - southern Africa correspondent.

When the African National Congress (ANC) marks its 96th anniversary on 8 January, it will also be the start of another testing year for South Africa's ruling party.

The newly elected ANC leader has been recharged with corruptionThe ANC's recent national conference in Polokwane that elected Jacob Zuma as the new leader, was a watershed for Africa's oldest liberation movement.
In voting for Mr Zuma and his allies, the ANC's rank and file sent a powerful message that it wanted a change of leadership style - with leaders who are more in touch with the grassroots.
"This was an attempt to reclaim the party for the poor and the working class," said political analyst Judith February as allies of President Thabo Mbeki were voted off the ANC's National Executive Committee.
The extent of the rebellion against Mr Mbeki and his subsequent humiliation caught many people by surprise.
Two centres of power
Paradoxically, this was the rejection of a president who had led South Africa through a decade of solid economic growth.
But Professor Adam Habib from the University of Johannesburg says one of Mr Mbeki's greatest weaknesses was that he failed to identify with the fears and hopes of the people he governs.
"Whether it was on crime or the crisis in the public health system, Mbeki never had the humility to acknowledge there was a problem," wrote Prof Habib, in the Sunday Independent newspaper.
President Mbeki has brushed aside suggestions that he is too "aloof". He insists that he travels all over the country, listening to people at "imbizos" (public meetings).
However, there is no question that Jacob Zuma is more the man of the people.
So, expect many more renditions of "uMchini Wami" ("Bring Me My Machine Gun") - the liberation struggle song that Mr Zuma has made his own, and sings with gusto at every opportunity.
South Africa will enter 2008 with two centres of power.
Thabo Mbeki remains president of the country until his term of office expires at the next general election in 2009, while Jacob Zuma has taken over the running of the all-powerful African National Congress.
This unprecedented and potentially awkward situation makes Mr Mbeki something of a lame duck president, but he has said there is no reason for his government not to serve its full term. Mr Zuma has supported this.

President Mbeki has overseen a decade of economic growth
Blade Nzimande, the general secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP), hopes a stronger ANC will emerge in the coming year.
The SACP and the trade union federation, Cosatu, have been among Mr Zuma's key supporters, and have also been strident critics of President Mbeki's economic policy.
"We need to lay the foundation for rebuilding a stronger (tripartite) alliance that is capable of moving together on the key challenges that face our country," says Mr Nzimande.
Distraction
But Jacob Zuma was only given a week to savour his victory before the National Prosecuting Authority recharged him with corruption, in connection with a controversial arms deal dating back to 1999.
An ANC leader who will to be involved in court appearances over a prolonged period will be a serious distraction for the party.
Mr Zuma has said only that he will cross that bridge when he comes to it.

Zuma has strong support from the ANC rank and file
Should Jacob Zuma eventually be convicted, it would lead the ANC's new deputy leader, Kgalema Motlanthe, to take over at the helm of the party, and make him the frontrunner to succeed Thabo Mbeki as South African president in 2009.
Nowhere is the transition within the ANC being watched more closely than in neighbouring Zimbabwe where another year of economic chaos looms.
John Nkomo, the national chairman of the ruling party - Zanu-PF - was among the international delegates invited to the ANC conference in Polokwane.
In a New Year message, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai called on the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) to "invest more political capital" into Zimbabwe's transition.
President Thabo Mbeki has been mediating on behalf of Sadc since last March.
MDC policy co-ordinator, Eddie Cross, says: "Jacob Zuma is now leader of the ANC and this strengthens the pro-change position of South Africa."
The ANC's traditional 8 January statement will outline the priorities for 2008. Jacob Zuma will have plenty to think about as he assembles his leadership team, and tries to satisfy the huge expectations of his party and the country.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

The Litany Bird is still away !

Friday 28th december 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

The Litany Bird is still away from the nest; let's hope she's having a good break.

I can remember three or four years back sitting with her round the kitchen table discussing the various cut-off points beyond which life would be unbearable in Zimbabwe. For the Litany Bird it was medical care and education for her son; once those had gone, she said, life would be insupportable. For me, it was not being able to get my own money out of the bank; that would be the point at which life would simply be untenable I thought. At the time Argentina - or was it Mexico - was in the headlines with inflation over 1000% and pictures of desperate people trying to get their money out of banks before the whole economy crashed.

Inexorably over the last few weeks the pace of Zimbabwe's collapse has accelerated; the decision by the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Gideon Gono, to introduce the new bearer cheques within days of Christmas has brought about the nightmare scenario of thousands of Zimbabweans unable to get at their own money. It's not the first time this has happened; this is the so-called Operation Sunrise Two designed, says Gono, to relieve the shortage of bank notes. The new notes were issued on December 19, just six days before Christmas. The timing of Operation Sunrise could not have been more insensitive with thousands of people trying to get to their rural homes and buy a few little extras for the 'festive' season. Was it an act of callous indifference on the government's part or just the usual short-sighted inefficiency, or was there some more sinister plan at work, designed to cause panic and mayhem among the populace?

In the Litany Bird's hometown and in towns up and down the country, desperate people have been standing in queues for days on end, some even with their cooking pots while they wait in the endless lines. In an unprecedented move the Governor ordered the banks to remain open on Christmas day and Boxing Day but his order was disregarded and the only resource for desperate Zimbabweans was the ATM. There are strict limits on the amount one can withdraw and with the issue of the new notes, prices went rocketing up again; even the state mouthpiece, the Herald, was forced to admit that a bottle of Mazoe orange now costs 9 million Zim dollars in a state owned supermarket in Harare! The banks are saying that they were just not sent enough of the new bank notes to satisfy the demand so what was the point of their opening? Christmas for Zimbabweans was simply a non-event and with their usual arrogant disregard for the well-being of the people the Reserve Bank Governor and all the rest of the Zanu PF fat cats disappeared to spend their Christmas breaks far from the public eye. One thing you can be sure of is that none of the 'chefs' will be sharing the misery of the masses they claim to care so much about.

What next for a nation whose citizens have no cash and no food? Will it be more of the same in 2008 or will the people of Zimbabwe finally tell this utterly rotten government that 'Enough is enough'. I hear the ZBC is playing a jingle every fifteen minutes promising ' the mother of all harvests' next year. I'm sure the cruel irony of that cheap propaganda is not lost on the flood victims in Muzarabani and the millions of near-starving people throughout the country.

Ndini shamwari yenyu. PH

KENYA AWAITS ELECTION RESULTS !

Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga is ahead of President Mwai Kibaki in a hard fought election, according to partial and unofficial results.
In a setback for Mr Kibaki, 16 of his ministers lost their seats.
But Mr Kibaki's camp has said it can still win the presidential race, with the count taking longer than expected.
Despite isolated incidents of violence, international observers have said that the election was generally well organised and peaceful.
President Kibaki trails Mr Odinga and his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) by around a million votes in the presidential contest with 50% of votes declared, the BBC's Adam Mynott reports from Nairobi.
But he says many of these votes had not yet been officially approved.
Late on Friday, the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) had released results from just 46 of the country's 210 constituencies, with Mr Odinga leading by 1,143,353 votes to 831,458 for Mr Kibaki, Reuters news agency reported.
The ECK head, Samuel Kivuito, has said there were delays in voting and counting, and the process of compiling results was going slowly.
Unofficial and partial results from local TV stations gave Mr Odinga a commanding lead.
Not giving up
"It is true that the ODM is ahead, but it's only fair to wait until the last ballot is counted before we know the winner of the elections," said Ngari Gituku, a spokesman for Mr Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU).
"We are not going to lose hope until the last soldier is shot down and we have no intention of giving up until such a time," he told AFP news agency, adding that his party had evidence of widespread rigging.

At the polls: Reporters' log
Voters' views
Vote in pictures

Mr Odinga's ODM has in turn accused the electoral commission of deliberately delaying the results, and now says Mr Kibaki should concede.
"Kibaki seems to be going out in a very untidy manner and really is not being respectful or grateful to the democratic process that put him in power," said ODM official Anyang Ngong.
ODM General Secretary Joseph Nyaga said the delay threatened to cause instability and unrest right across the country.
Police Commissioner Hussein Ali has urged poll losers to respect the outcome.
High turnout
A spokesman for the ECK told the BBC that turnout had perhaps been more than 70%, from an electorate of 14m.
Early results show that a majority of MPs have lost their seats.

Kibaki: Dream or nightmare?
Odinga: King-maker

Kenyan parliamentarians had gained notoriety in the past five years for arbitrarily increasing their salaries and allowances while a majority of Kenyans continue to grapple with meagre wages and a high cost of living, says the BBC's Josphat Makori in Nairobi.
At least 16 cabinet ministers from Mr Kibaki's PNU also fell in the parliamentary elections.
Among them was Vice-President Moody Awori, who lost his seat to arch-rival Dr Paul Otuoma of the Orange Democratic Movement.
Also significant is the fall of three sons of retired president Daniel Arap Moi in three different constituencies in the Rift Valley province.
Mr Moi has helped fund Mr Kibaki's campaign.
Fraud accusation
Mr Odinga, who fell out with Mr Kibaki shortly after helping him to win the presidency in 2002, alleged fraud before the polls opened.
Mr Odinga was at first not allowed to vote on the grounds that his name was not on the voters' roll, though he did cast his ballot later in the day.
The president has denied involvement in any election fraud.
Correspondents say that in Kenya's previous elections, the outcome has been obvious before polling, or at least there has been a strong favourite.
President Kibaki hopes his economic record will secure a second term.
Mr Kibaki's critics accuse him of failing to keep his promise to tackle corruption.
There were six other candidates in the presidential elections besides Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

BHUTTO KILLING BLAMED ON AL-QAEDA !

Pakistan says it has intelligence that al-Qaeda assassinated opposition politician Benazir Bhutto at an election rally on Thursday.
Citing what it said was an intercepted phone call, the interior ministry said the killing had been ordered by an "al-Qaeda leader", Baitullah Mehsud.
The BBC's security correspondent, Frank Gardner, says it is too early to establish the truth of what happened.
Ms Bhutto has been buried in her family tomb amid scenes of mass grieving.
Video of her last moments before the attack in Rawalpindi was shown at the news conference given in Islamabad by the interior ministry.
According to the ministry, the primary cause of Ms Bhutto's death appears to have been a knock on her head as she tried to duck her attacker, and not bullets or shrapnel. Her party denies this.
Pakistani security forces are on high alert, with at least 31 people killed in protests by Bhutto supporters across the country since the assassination.
Baitullah Mehsud is a tribal leader in Pakistan's South Waziristan region.

Search for stability continues
Shock in home province
'Al-Qaeda plot' transcript

Pakistani intelligence services intercepted a call from him in which he allegedly congratulated another militant after Ms Bhutto's death, interior ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told reporters.
There was, he added, "irrefutable evidence that al-Qaeda, its networks and cohorts were trying to destabilise Pakistan".
There have now been so many conflicting versions coming out of Pakistan of how Benazir Bhutto died and who sent the assassin that it is hard for anyone to build up an accurate picture, our security correspondent says.
Both al-Qaeda and the Taleban are perfectly plausible culprits since they hated everything the secular Ms Bhutto stood for, he adds.
But critics of President Pervez Musharraf are unlikely to be convinced by his government's insistence that it has proof al-Qaeda ordered the murder.
Brig Cheema said Ms Bhutto had smashed her head against a lever of her car's sun roof.
Pakistan is at the brink of civil war, courtesy of the dictatorship -Dr Rubab Ahmed, London.

Have your say
Bhutto in her own words
Mourners blame Musharraf

She was, he said, trying to shelter inside the car from the gunman, who set off a bomb after opening fire with a gun.
A surgeon who treated her, Dr Mussadiq Khan, said earlier she may have died from a shrapnel wound while Ms Bhutto's security adviser, Rehman Malik, said she had been shot in the neck and chest.
Farooq Naik, a senior official in Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, said the government's explanation of her death was a "pack of lies".
"Two bullets hit her, one in the abdomen and one in the head," he told AFP news agency.
Brig Cheema added that all possible security arrangements had been put in place for Ms Bhutto.
Her supporters say the government did not do enough to protect her.
After a previous attempt on her life in October that killed 130 people, Ms Bhutto accused rogue elements of the Pakistani intelligence services of involvement.
Ms Bhutto was buried next to her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the family mausoleum near their home village, Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, in Sindh province, as thousands of mourners attended.

Rioters in Peshawar shouted slogans against President Musharraf.
Rioting and unrest has been reported across the country since her death.
Six bodies were found among the remains of a factory set on fire in Karachi
At least one passenger train was set ablaze in Sindh Province and a number of railway stations were reportedly burnt as security forces in the province were ordered to shoot rioters on sight
In the city of Multan in Punjab province, a mob ransacked seven banks and torched a petrol station
Other cities across Pakistan are at a virtual standstill.
Schools, businesses and transport are all closed, and people are reluctant to step out during the three days of national mourning declared by Mr Musharraf.
Election questions
Plans for a general election on 8 January, for which Ms Bhutto had been campaigning when she was killed, remain unchanged, the government says.

BENAZIR BHUTTO
Father led Pakistan before being executed in 1979
Spent five years in prison
Served as PM from 1988-1990 and 1993-1996
Sacked twice by president on corruption charges
Formed alliance with rival ex-PM Nawaz Sharif in 2006
Ended self-imposed exile by returning to Pakistan in October
Educated at Harvard and Oxford

Obituary: Benazir Bhutto
Life in pictures

The election is meant to pave the way for a return to democratic rule, suspended in October 1999 when the then Gen Musharraf seized power through a coup.
But opposition parties are now against the election taking the place and it is hard to see how they it would be a true test of the democratic process, the BBC's Karishma Vaswani reports.
Ms Bhutto returned from eight years of self-imposed exile in October, following an amnesty agreed with President Musharraf.

"SAYINGS" !

"SEIZE TODAY,

AND PUT AS LITTLE TRUST AS YOU CAN IN

THE MORROW" !

RESCUERS HUNT FOR EGYPT SURVIVORS!

Building collapses happen frequently in Egypt's cities. Rescuers in Egypt are still looking for survivors in the rubble of a block of flats that collapsed in Alexandria on Monday, killing at least 20. Only three people have been pulled out alive from a building said to house about 30 in the suburb of Loran.
Collapses happen frequently in Egypt's overcrowded urban centres, where many buildings are constructed with poor materials and regulations are flouted.
An investigation has started into the cause of the collapse.
Two storeys had been added illegally to the building and local authorities ordered them removed as long ago as 1995, though the order was never implemented.
Prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for the building's owners.
Emergency workers continued their search of the site on Wednesday with heavy equipment and sniffer dogs.

Rescue official Maj Gen Abdel-Meguid Selim told Associated Press news agency: "We are in a race against time. We hope to get as many victims alive as possible."
Alexandria Governor Adel Labib said renovation work was being undertaken on the first floor of the block when the building started listing and collapsed.
Among those brought out of the rubble on Tuesday was a four-year-old girl.
Another was a 24-year-old woman, described as "in good condition".
"She can move and speak, and is now undergoing X-rays on different parts of her body," official Mena news agency quoted Alexandria hospital doctor Mahmud al-Damati as saying.
In 2005, at least 16 people died when a building collapsed in another residential area in the Mediterranean city - Egypt's second largest.
That block, which had had three extra floors added illegally, collapsed onto the wall of a neighbouring school as mothers were waiting to pick up their children.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

SOUTHERNERS TO TAKE SUDAN POSTS !

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has issued a decree appointing new members of the former southern rebel movement to the national unity government.
The ministers are due to be sworn in shortly under the terms of a 2005 peace deal that ended the 21-year civil war.
The southern ministers left the government in October but most differences have now been resolved.
Recent clashes between southern forces and pro-government militiamen have reportedly left 100 dead.
The fighting in Bahr el-Gazal has now stopped.
Southern leader Salva Kiir said the militiamen "were acting under local commanders only... the situation is now under control."
The continued presence of northern militias in the south was one reason why the ex-rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement pulled out of the national government in October.
They will be withdrawn soon and other issues have also been resolved.

However, the demarcation of the disputed oil-rich Abyei region has still not been settled.
The SPLM's Deng Alor replaces Lam Akol as foreign minister, while other former rebels are to take up senior jobs.
The BBC's correspondent in Khartoum, Amber Henshaw, says many people feared Sudan was on the verge of sliding back into the brutal 20-year civil war that ended in 2005 and cost the lives of 1.5 million people.
But the SPLM agreed to end its boycott after its leader Salva Kiir met Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
The unity government will also set up a development commission to speed up road links between the more developed north and the south, which has little infrastructure after the long war.
Under the peace deal, the SPLM leader is also national vice-president.
There are currently 10,000 UN peacekeepers in South Sudan.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZIMBABWE WOE AS BANKS STAY SHUT!

Banks in Zimbabwe failed to open on Christmas Day, despite earlier pledges from the central bank governor.
Instead, long lines of Zimbabweans desperate for local currency queued at the few machines dispensing cash.
On top of rampant inflation, mass unemployment and shortages of fuel and basic goods the country is now suffering shortages of bank notes.
The shortage remains despite the introduction of higher-denomination notes last week.
Empty-handed
On Monday the central bank's governor, Gideon Gono, said banks would remain open on Christmas Day and Boxing Day to dispense cash after the new notes failed to cut long bank queues.
But reports from the capital Harare on Tuesday said the banks were closed, leaving customers empty-handed and forcing many to join the lines at cash machines instead.
Just spoke to my mother, it's heart breaking for me to send them money from here in Canada and they're unable to cash it anywhere - Tafadzwa, Toronto.
"I was hoping to find a shorter queue since it's Christmas, but it seems everyone has come out," Tawanda Moyo told Reuters news agency.
Ms Moyo said she was a teacher trying to get money to buy passage home to the countryside for Christmas.
"After a year in which the struggle to survive got harder, one expected to rest through Christmas, not to be queuing for hours," Ms Moyo added.
State media reported on Monday that the central bank had put another Z$20 trillion (worth about US$667m at the official exchange rate, or US$10m at the black-market rate) into circulation by introducing the new notes, Reuters reported.

Long queues for cash have become a common sight. But only a fraction of the existing cash in circulation is in the formal economy - the majority is in the black economy.
Mr Gono blames the currency shortages on foreign-exchange currency dealers, the so-called "cash barons", and Zimbabweans are being urged to report anyone flouting currency exchange laws.
Zimbabwe has the highest level of inflation in the world at more than 8,000%.
Critics of President Robert Mugabe accuse him of allowing the economy to go to ruin but he has remained defiant, blaming the problems on a Western plot to oust him from power.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

TURNING THE Tables on Nigera's e-mail conmen !

By Dan Damon BBC, London.

Mike is a "scambaiter," dedicated to fighting back against those who send out the notorious 419 e-mails, promising untold wealth to anyone gullible or naive enough to disclose their bank details.
Mike asked us not to use his full name because he's dealing with some heavy cross-border criminals.

Those who fall for the 419 cons are hoping for millions. His group of volunteers at 419eater.com use their computer skills to fool the scammers, to disrupt their crimes, and to have some fun at the scammer's expense.
Every day, millions of people get e-mails like this:
Dear Sir/ Madam,
I am fine today and how are you? I hope this letter will find you in the best of health. I am Prince Joe Eboh, the Chairman of the "Contract Award Committee", of the "Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)", a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
NDDC was set up by the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha who died on 18th June 1998, to manage the excess revenue accruing from the sales of Petroleum and its allied products as a domestic increase in the petroleum products to develop the communities in the Niger Delta Oil producing areas. The estimated annual revenue for 1999 was $45 Billion US Dollars...
And of course, if you were only willing to help the writer siphon some of it off, a few of those many millions could be yours.
Police estimate that every year, US citizens alone are conned out of some $200m.
Painted breast
Mike told me how he baited the writer of the e-mail above, Prince Joe Eboh.
"I'm sure he's not a prince at all," Mike says. "He contacted me with a standard 419 [so-called after a section of Nigeria's legal code] scam.
I have been troubled recently after the death of a dear friend of mine, Minnie Mowse
'Father Hector Barnett'"I tried to turn it round by saying I worked for a church and we couldn't do any business with people who are not of our faith."
Mike sent a response in the name of Father Hector Barnett of the Church of the Painted Breast.
Dear Sir,
I would dearly love to help you. If you ever decide to join our faith then of course I could help you both with my experience and financial support. I wish you well in your endeavour my brother.
Yours, Father Hector Barnett
"Now I knew the guy would write back and say: 'Well, can I join your faith?' and indeed he did," says Mike.
Dear Father Hector,
If joining your faith is what it takes to help me of course, I am ready to join you. I'm from a good Christian family. I will do anything you want me to do in the faith. Don't forget that I have to transfer the money to your account as urgently as possible. Send me your account details. I hope to read your mail soon.
Prince Joe Eboh
'War-paint'
Dear Joe,
Our ministry was founded in 1774 by a wonderful lady by the name of Betsy Carrington. She spent many of her first preaching years in Kenya, spreading the holy gospel amongst the local people there. She was the first person male or female to promote Christian texts and beliefs to the Masai warrior tribe.

The Holy Church of The Order of The Red Breast 'initiation ceremony'The most famous account is when as a test she had to remove the top part of her clothes and paint the top half of her body and breast with the red Masai war-paint as a gesture of faith and belief to them so that they would accept her and trust her. She was almost immediately accepted by them and was one of the most trusted westerners known at that time.
As a qualification to enter the Holy Church of The Order of The Red Breast, all followers must go through the initiation procedure that Miss Carrington made so famous. I have attached a photograph of four of our young inductees going through the procedure.
Please use this picture to enable you to make the same marking on yourself. I have also attached a small picture showing the design in more detail. I look forward to welcoming you into our membership my brother.
Father Hector Barnett Financial Development - Holy Church of The Order of The Red Breast.
'Processing fees'
Using image software, Mike made up an "initiation" picture. And Prince Joe duly carried out the induction and e-mailed back a photo of himself in the properly sanctified state.
Dear Brother Hector,
I want to thank the Almighty God himself for the opportunity I have to be a member of this great church The Holy Church Of The Painted Breast. I'm looking forward to establishing a branch of the Church here. But I'll like us to finish everything about the business proposal, which I sent to you earlier...

The picture sent by Prince Joe Eboh"He then tried to hit me for $18,000 for processing fees for transferring millions," Mike says.
He wrote back as Father Hector, saying that the church had plenty of money, but there was a withdrawal fee of $80.
"I persuaded him to send me the $80, which he did, inside a birthday card, by courier," Mike says.
However, former Scotland Yard fraud officer Tom Craig says that it is unprecedented for the 419 con artists to part with any money - he suggests the notes may have been forged.
Mike says that any money they get from these reverse stings goes to a children's charity in the north of England.
Exporting snow
Father Hector of the Church of the Painted Breast then entered a troubling period of religious uncertainty.
Dear Joe,
This is your good friend Hector Barnett. Please do not be alarmed that I am contacting you from a different e-mail address. I will explain what has happened.
The guy obviously thought he was going to get $18,000 so easily, he was blinded by his own greed
MikeI have been troubled recently after the death of a dear friend of mine, Minnie Mowse. She was a very, very dear friend indeed, and her death affected me greatly and started to make me question my faith. I have decided to leave the church and join a travelling circus.
I have already made two very good friends, and tomorrow I will be starting my circus training with them...
Prince Joe then began receiving e-mails from another "Reverend" of the Church of the Painted Breast worried about the disappearance of Father Hector and $18,000 from church funds.
Joe already knew from Hector's increasingly eccentric e-mails that he had put the money into a business exporting snow to Siberia.
Lottery winnings
Despite that, Prince Joe still hasn't given up, even though he's $80 down. The e-mail exchange between the probably fake prince and the obviously fake church continues.
At the same time, the scambaiters are running several other such stings.
I asked Mike why these people who are themselves scammers can't spot an obvious scam.
"I think it operates in much the same way as it does with real victims. Greed clouds their judgement. The guy obviously thought he was going to get $18,000 so easily, he was blinded by his own greed.
"Which is what happens to those who fall for the 419 scams; they just see all these millions."
This would all be funny if it wasn't for the millions of dollars being stolen and probably put into drugs or other criminal activities.
Mike and his friends send all their e-mail exchanges to the police in the UK, Nigeria and to the FBI - he says they've had no response. And even warning the victims does no good. Most of them don't want to believe they're being scammed.
The latest e-mail scam concerns lottery winnings you didn't know you had.
If you're tempted, just remember Prince Joe who's still sending e-mails saying he's sticking to his promise and saying the daily prayer: "When all above seems a great test, Get on down with the Holy Red Breast."
Dear Father,
When I said the prayer this morning, something like a fountain went down my system making me to feel strong & happy. I have spent money to process all the necessary documents for the transfer of this fund. What remains now is the registration of your name as the contractor who executed the contract.
Yours, Joe.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CHILD KIDNAP 'SURGE' IN DR CONGO !

All sides in the conflict use children, Save the Children says. Recent fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has led to a surge in child abductions by armed groups, the charity Save the Children says.
The situation for children in the east of the country is "catastrophic", says a report for the aid organisation.
Around the town of Goma, all sides in the conflict are making children act as soldiers, sex slaves, porters and spies, the charity said.
Conflict in the east has driven about 800,000 people from their homes.
Save the Children says it has managed to free about 800 youngsters from the militias in the last year - although some have been captured again.
'Frontline fodder'
Hussein Mursal, the Congolese director for the charity, said: "The situation for children in eastern DRC is catastrophic.

Voices of Violence
"Fighters from all sides are using children as frontline fodder."
Schools have been targeted by the militias as "rich recruitment ground", the charity said.
In the intensifying conflict all sides have recruited child soldiers as young as 10 years to boost their cause.
Save the Children spokeswoman Sarah Jacobs told the BBC's World Today programme about one of the child soldiers she had met around the town of Goma.
"I spent some time with a 15-year-old boy who had just escaped, so he had run for two days, no water, no food, fearing death to escape a militia group," she said.
"Listening to his tales - he had been forcibly taken; he had been fighting on the front line; his eyes were damaged from the gunpowder.
"He had been forced to kill, at point blank range, four children in his own militia group, so essentially his friends, because they were being punished; but all he talked about was wanting desperately to get back to his family."

Behind rebel lines

Fighting in the area escalated at the start of this month, when the army launched a long-planned offensive against dissident general Laurent Nkunda, with the support of United Nations troops.
BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says the offensive went badly wrong and the general quickly gained the upper hand.
Gen Nkunda says his forces are protecting DR Congo's Tutsi population from Rwandan Hutu rebels, who have been based in eastern DR Congo since the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
He told the BBC he was not interested in using child soldiers.
"We are demobilising them, in three years I have demobilised around 2,500, so I would not be recruiting them," he said.
He also called for a ceasefire ahead of an internationally sponsored peace conference due to take place in Goma in a few days time.
"I wanted to convince our government to call for a ceasefire because we cannot undertake negotiations and talks when there is fighting," Gen Nkunda told the BBC.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZIMBABWE - LETTER FROM THE DIASPORA

21 December 2007

Dear Friends,

My phone rang at 8.0'clock this morning and I guessed straight away that it was Zimbabwe calling because the Brits rarely call at that time in the morning! I was right. My friend in Murehwa wanted to tell me that a certain parcel had arrived but more than that he wanted to talk about what has just happened in South Africa and what it means for the negotiations going on between Zanu PF and the MDC. Knowing how passionately I'm concerned about everything Zimbabwean my caller wanted to describe to me the feeling on the ground in my old home area when they heard that Jacob Zuma had beaten Thabo Mbeki in the election for leadership of the ANC. Naturally enough after seven long nightmare years, Zimbabweans are principally concerned for what this result might mean in terms of their future.

Will events in South Africa make any difference at all? My caller assured me that's the question everyone's asking even in the smaller centres of the country. I admit my own first reaction to the news had been excitement but on reflection I think it is really only significant in that it puts additional pressure on Mbeki to solve the problem. Change in the leadership at the top of the ANC might possibly mean that there will be a firmer line on the Zimbabwe question and that might filter through to Thabo Mbeki himself.

There is no doubt that Mbeki's position is seriously weakened inside his own country and presumably in SADC and the international community. With the end of Mbeki's presidency in sight, he will surely want to score a breakthrough with this thorny and seemingly intractable problem? But Zimbabweans would do well to remember that the South African President will still be the one facilitating the negotiations. Perhaps even more significant is that Zanu PF's endorsement of Robert Mugabe as their candidate in the forthcoming elections means that the one intransigent element preventing genuine negotiations will also still be in place, ie. Mugabe himself. What has become very clear to me is that Mbeki shares at least one characteristic with his friend Robert Mugabe. Both men are in denial about the realities on the ground in their countries and yet both leaders seem to think they reflect grass-root feelings when in fact they have become totally divorced from their own people. Mugabe denies his own responsibility for what has happened in Zimbabwe and Mbeki's denies the terrible reality of the Aids pandemic decimating his country. But, despite the blow to his pride and to his own standing, I can't believe Mbeki is suddenly going to change his stance of support for the man he regards as a Liberation comrade. It would, I believe, be a mistake to assume that Zuma's victory is going to make any immediate difference to the Zimbabwean situation. The suffering and near starvation continues as do the daily arrests and beatings of opposition supporters and the response from the South African government is a deafening silence. It is hard to understand how South Africa can conduct its own affairs in an apparently fair and democratic way and yet remain silent when its close neighbour is putting in place the mechanisms that will ensure the 2008 elections are already rigged.

My early morning telephone caller wanted to tell me also how people on the ground are feeling about the forthcoming elections in Zimbabwe. Looking at the situation from the diaspora, I had been of the opinion that the MDC should boycott the whole exercise for the farce that it is but it seems that the people on the ground do not share that view. Despite Zanu PF's tinkering with the oppressive legislation and amending the constitution - again - ordinary people appear to have understood very well that the only way open to them to bring about change is through the ballot box. The MDC are yet to decide whether to participate or not but judging from my contact's comments the people on the ground are anxious to exercise their democratic right. It's a tough choice for the opposition but I hope they will listen to the people's voice.

Chaos in the banking sector was further exacerbated yesterday with the issue of new notes and pictures of desperate people being turned away from banks illustrated very clearly how frantic ordinary people are with Christmas just around the corner and the dreaded school fees due in January. It's hard to see how issuing larger denomination notes will help the economic collapse in the country, as I said last week the truth is that Zanu PF have no clue how to solve the problems besetting Zimbabwe. And they seem to care even less; even RBZ governor Gideon Gono admitted to the Congress that it was top people in the country who were milking the system. One little story this week proved to me how callous and indifferent the ruling party is to the interests of the people. They respect nothing and no one but their own selfish and corrupt interests. Teachers marking national examination papers at Belvedere Teachers College and Harare Polytechnic were ordered to vacate their living quarters so that delegates attending the Congress could be accommodated. As always politics in the form of Robert Mugabe and his interests takes precedence over every other consideration, even children and the nation's future.The next generation deserves better from their leaders; it really is time for change.

Yours in the struggle. PH

MISS FRANCE FACES CALL TO RESIGN !

Valerie Begue has been told she should immediately take off her Miss France crown because of suggestive pictures published by a French magazine.
Ms Begue - who became Miss France less than a fortnight ago - refused to resign, saying she had been betrayed.
She had returned on Thursday to an enthusiastic welcome on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion.
Before the competition, contestants guarantee that they have never been photographed in compromising positions.
One of the pictures shows her licking yoghurt provocatively, while another has her floating on a wooden cross in a swimming pool.
The President of the Miss France contest, Genevieve de Fontenay, went on French radio to insist that Valerie Begue would have to stand down.
If she did not, Ms de Fontenay said she would be stripped of her crown.
"She is in Reunion. Well, let her stay there," she said.
She went on to say that if she had been aware of the pictures, Ms Begue "would never have been let into the Miss France competition".
"I wouldn't want to be seen touring the provinces with a girl like that," she said.

After the contest organiser's comments were broadcast in Reunion, radio listeners expressed their shock.
It was the first time since 1978 that anyone from the island had been named Miss France.
And the honour came after a series of setbacks in Reunion including a tropical cyclone.
Hundreds of fans had converged on the airport to mark what newspapers described as the return of a princess.
At a news conference late on Friday, Valerie Begue told reporters that she would have some time for reflection before making a final decision.
If she does stand down, her title will be awarded to a runner-up.
The competition ran into similar controversy in 2005 when the then Miss France was stripped of her crown for posing for Playboy.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

APPEAL OVER MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE !

The bottle may have been washed ashore by stormy seasA message in a bottle thrown into the sea at Atlantic City in the US has been found on a beach in Cornwall.
The bottle, discovered by a beach ranger on Summerleaze Beach near Bude, contains a sun-bleached letter from a 12-year-old girl from Durham.
In the letter the girl, called Alexus, asks the finder to send her the bottle, but the contact details are illegible.
It is thought the bottle was washed up in Cornwall because of the recent high winds and stormy seas.
The message on blue-lined writing paper was written on 18 December 2006, but only the writing on the top half of the letter has remained clear and legible, with the remainder being bleached by the sun.
The beach ranger is hoping to send the bottle on its final journey.
Alan Coltart said: "This bottle has travelled for nearly a year across over 3,000 miles of Atlantic Ocean.
"The message requests the finder reunites the bottle with its sender. Sadly the contact details are illegible, but we would like to help the bottle travel its final 300 miles back to Durham."
Anyone who knows Alexus is asked to contact North Cornwall Council's beach ranger service.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

MBEKI DEFIANT AFTER DEFEAT BY ANC

Mr Mbeki was defeated by Jacob Zuma as party leader on Tuesday. South African President Thabo Mbeki has said his government will stay in office despite huge losses in elections for senior African National Congress posts.
Mr Mbeki told a news conference in Pretoria that his government would serve until its term expired in 2009. Jacob Zuma, who defeated Mr Mbeki in the vote for ANC leader, has said the pair can work together. But a BBC correspondent says questions continue to be raised about having two centres of power in South Africa.
"I have no reason to assume that there would be anything that would stop the government serving the full term for which it was elected," Mr Mbeki said. "So I would expect the government to serve its term until the elections in 2009," the president added. Mr Mbeki urged ANC members to "respond positively" to Mr Zuma's promise to "develop smooth working relations between government and the ruling party".

ANC COMMITTEE
IN:
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
Tony Yengeni, former chief whip, convicted of corruption
Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, sacked deputy health minister
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang (known as Dr Beetroot)
OUT - Mbeki loyalists:
Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota
Pahad brothers

Elections for the ANC's National Executive Committee (NEC) confirmed the groundswell of support for Mr Zuma in the party, with several cabinet ministers close to Mr Mbeki being voted off the committee. The ex-wife of former President Nelson Mandela, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, emerged top in the NEC vote in the northern town of Polokwane, endorsed by 2,845 of the 3,605 delegates. She has not been active in the ANC since 2003, when she was convicted of fraud.

Among the prominent Mbeki allies who did not make it onto the NEC were national Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad and his brother, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad.

JACOB ZUMA

Played key role in fight against apartheid
Plagued by corruption allegations
Acquitted on rape charges
Seen as charismatic

Zuma enjoys crowning
Controversial arms deal

Mr Zuma could still face new corruption charges, which prosecutors say are imminent. He has said he is ready to go to court to clear his name. Referring to the allegations against his rival, Mr Mbeki said: "All of us in the ANC have insisted, even... Zuma himself, that the law must take its course." Mr Zuma's supporters have always said the charges are part of a political conspiracy against him.
On Thursday, chief prosecutor Mokotedi Mpshe told South Africa's 702 Talk Radio that the investigation into Mr Zuma was complete, and that "all we are doing now is tying [up] the loose ends". Mr Zuma refused to comment, only saying: "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
The charges relate to a controversial arms deal, which saw Mr Zuma's adviser Schabir Shaik jailed for 15 years.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

DIARY: JOHAH AND THE WHALE-CHASERS !

The BBC's Jonah Fisher is on a Greenpeace ship tracking the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean. You can follow his travels for the next two months on the Ten O'clock News, and in this diary.

FRIDAY 21 DECEMBER: JAPAN'S U-TURN
There are lots of smiles on the Esperanza this evening.
News that humpbacks are being taken off this year's Japanese whale hunt had been rumoured for a few days but confirmation came just as the sun was setting.

Guide to the Humpback
Japan's point of view
I'm not sure if someone on board was privy to inside information but a party had already been planned for the helicopter hangar at the back of the ship.
I am told it went well. Unfortunately, the huge interest in this story meant drinking beer was the last thing on my mind. It was more a question of working out which combination of tea, coffee and gingernut biscuits would keep me standing the longest.
The prevailing opinion on the ship is that the decision had come as a result of Australian pressure.

Map: Voyage to Antarctic waters

This week it was announced that Canberra would be sending a customs ship to the Antarctic waters to photograph and film the whalers, with a view to possibly taking Japan to court.
With the Australians an important trading partner, it seems Tokyo was unwilling to allow things to slip too far.
For Greenpeace, no sooner had the news come out than it was playing down its significance.
Fan base From the campaign room at the top of the ship, it was being stressed that this was just 50 of almost 1,000 whales which would still be killed.
Some 935 minke are on the list and 50 fin whales.
The fins are considered an endangered species but, unluckily for them, they do not have the same sort of fan base as the humpbacks.
So, the Esperanza continues on its steady journey south.
Friday was the smoothest day so far with beautiful crisp clear skies and albatrosses looping round behind the ship.
On Saturday, the ship goes into port for the last time.
A two-hour pit stop in Bluff, on the southernmost tip of New Zealand, will ensure that the Esperanza's fuel tanks are full to the brim so that she can last even longer at sea.

THURSDAY 20 DECEMBER: OFF TO THE SOUTH

At 0400 local time, water came racing through the rusty porthole on to the cabin floor.
After 10 days waiting for the Greenpeace ship - the Esperanza - to leave port in Auckland, my first night at sea was useful preparation for the tough conditions that lie ahead.

The Japanese fleet will be trying to lose the boats following it
Luckily for me, my two room-mates quickly leapt out of their bunks and fastened the porthole shut before another wave crashed through its circular pane of glass.
Our cabin is at the very front of the Esperanza which means we hear and feel every contact between the ship's bows and the waves outside.
Technical problems with the Greenpeace helicopter delayed the ship's departure from New Zealand.
Glum faces
The chopper is a vital part of this anti-whaling operation. Firstly, to locate the Japanese whaling fleet, and then to provide aerial video footage of the whalers' in action.

HAVE YOUR SAY
The truth is that we live in a world in which humans hunt and kill animals, for recreation, food and resources.
Bryan, Manchester
Send us your comments

Greenpeace knows only too well that there is little point making its protest in the isolation of Antarctic waters if it does not have graphic television footage of its actions to quickly send around the world.
So there were glum faces in the Esperanza's mess when news of the ship's departure from Auckland was posted on the communal chalkboard.
"NO HELI" was scrawled underneath it - crucial parts needed for the maintenance of the helicopter had not arrived in time, so the decision was taken to leave without it.
For the Greenpeace cameraman and the three-person German documentary crew - planning to film spectacular shots of icebergs and whalers from the air - it was particularly bad news.
Vulnerable
The Esperanza is not the only ship heading to the Antarctic waters.
Sea Shepherd, a marine conservation group, has already made it to the ice with its ship, named after the late Steve Irwin.
But it has been forced to go north again to Australia for repairs to one of its engines.
The Australian government has also got plans to send a ship to monitor the whalers' activities.
The Japanese have been whaling under government-issued scientific permits since the moratorium on commercial whaling was introduced in 1986.
But the number of whales killed has steadily risen from about 200 to more than 1,000 planned for this season.
This year, for the first time, 50 Humpback whales are included.
They are not just a favourite with whale-watchers, but population levels are considered to be vulnerable worldwide.
For the next two months, I'll be reporting for BBC News from the Esperanza as it journeys south down to the ice and searches for the Japanese whalers.
Hide-and-seek
It is no free ride. We are paying our way and, of course, I have absolute editorial independence to say what I want without fear of being taken off air or thrown overboard.

I'll have sea-sickness pills to hand in the infamous Southern Ocean
Once we reach the Antarctic ice, an elaborate game of hide-and-seek between whalers and environmentalists will begin.
If the Japanese prove better at hiding than the Greenpeace crew are at seeking, it is very possible that I may see very little and this web diary will turn into long discussions about the relative merits of passing icebergs and penguins.
I am still not sure whether or not sending me on this trip is a big in-joke by BBC editors back in London.
I am certain that a colleague was only looking for a quick laugh (and found it) when they first suggested that they send a Jonah down to cover this whale story.

But, as the chuckles died away, the idea stuck and here I am preparing to cross the infamous Southern Ocean - sea-sickness pills firmly in hand.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS" !

"YOU CANNOT RUN WITH THE HARE AND

HUNT WITH THE HOUNDS" !

ZUMA ENJOYS HIS CROWNING MOMENT !

By Will Ross - BBC News, Polokwane

As 4,000 delegates made their way towards the conference venue, a huge white tent on the campus of the University of Limpopo, many were wondering what Jacob Zuma might say. Would the new president of the African National Congress call for unity at the end of a divisive week?

Or would he use it as an opportunity to assure South Africans, who have become increasingly disillusioned with the country's President, Thabo Mbeki, that change was on the way? Many of the Jacob Zuma supporters have been partying since his election victory on Tuesday. Judging by the tired look on the faces of the barmen of Polokwane, mornings have not been getting any easier for some of the delegates. But on the way to the conference hall some may have heard news on their radios which would have taken a bit of the sparkle out of it all.

During an interview on South Africa's Talk Radio 702, the acting national director of public prosecutions, Mokotedi Mpshe, was asked whether Mr Zuma could face imminent prosecution. "I should say so," was the gist of the reply. A corruption cloud has been hanging over Jacob Zuma's head for some time and the cloud is not blowing away. For more than two years an investigation has been going on into the allegation that he benefited financially following a controversial arms deal in 1999. His financial adviser would have been following the week's political events from his prison cell, having been found guilty of fraud.

The hall was full of delegates eager to hear the new leader. "The investigation is complete. We are tying up loose ends and the evidence we have now points to a case that can be taken to court," said Mr Mpshe. Mr Zuma's allies were keen to criticise the timing of the news and express their belief that the court case is part of a plan to stop him reaching the presidency. But judging by the volume inside the tent as delegates awaited Mr Zuma's speech, few of them were put off by Mr Mpshe's comments.

The delegates belted out songs from the ANC's liberation struggle, including Bamba Isandla Sami Tambo. One morale-boosting song - Hold My Hand Tambo - referring to the late Oliver Tambo, the anti-apartheid stalwart who was a father figure to Thabo Mbeki. Jacob Zuma made it clear at the opening of his speech that he was joining an illustrious list. "I stand before you with great humility, as the 12th president of the ANC," he said.

He may have won a bitter election contest but Mr Zuma's message was one of unity - and it was warmly received inside and out of the tent. He praised Thabo Mbeki, calling him "a comrade, a friend, a brother" and a leader, whilst asserting that Polokwane 2007 was not a conference of winners and losers.

Controversial arms deal

Looking tired but at ease addressing the crowd, Mr Zuma's style was clearly different from Thabo Mbeki, who is viewed by his critics as aloof and out of touch and has been known to entertain audiences with a two-and-a-half hour speech full of statistics. Jacob Zuma left the podium after 45 minutes, but returned seconds later to join in one final rendition of his trademark song Machini Wami - Bring Me My Machine Gun. It may seem a strange chorus but it sends the crowds into a frenzy. Mr Zuma's speech had hit all the right buttons. "It was a wonderful speech - a unifying speech. We only have one ANC," said one delegate. "It was very progressive. Bury the past and move forward. We are one," another added.

At the press conference that followed, Jacob Zuma laughed at the awkward questions and was in a jovial mood. It was no surprise that the very first question was about corruption and the possibility of an imminent trial. "We will cross that bridge when we come to it," he kept repeating as several journalists tried to draw him on the issue. However, Polokwane 2007 will be remembered for the divisive ANC election and it will take more than a speech to heal the rifts.

The question now is - will the conference be Jacob Zuma's political zenith or will he make it into the top job? In the coming months he could well be in and out of the courts, and may well feel like he needs a few more renditions of Bamba Isandla Sami Tambo.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

UGANDA LRA REBELS GIVEN ULTIMATUM!

Mr Kony remains in DR Congo because of the ICC warrant. Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has given the northern Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels an ultimatum of 31 January 2008 to conclude a peace deal.
It is the same date that has been set for LRA leader Joseph Kony and his fighters to leave their jungle hideout in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
DR Congo's army has warned it will launch an offensive if they do not go.
An LRA delegation has just returned to South Sudan, the venue of peace talks, after a six-week tour of the north.
The rebel representatives were discussing issues such as reconciliation in the region which has endured the brunt of a 21-year rebellion.

How to punish rebels

An estimated 1.5m people remain in displacement camps and thousands were killed during the fighting.
Mr Kony and three other top LRA commanders are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes.
Correspondents say this issue has been a stumbling block to finding a lasting peace deal at talks in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
South Sudan has been hosting negotiations between the government and LRA since mid 2006.
According to Uganda's Monitor newspaper, Mr Museveni said at a meeting with the rebel LRA delegation earlier this week that if no progress was made by the end of January, a new military offensive would be launched.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

RUSSIA HALTS LONDON ART DISPLAY!

The Hermitage had planned to loan Pablo Picasso's Dryad. Russian authorities have halted a major London exhibition of French and Russian art over claims Britain has failed to guarantee the paintings' return.
Russia's culture agency said the show could not go ahead unless the British government took further steps to ensure legal protection for the paintings.
British Culture Secretary James Purnell told BBC Radio 4 he would push through legislation offering better guarantees.
The exhibition had been due to open at the Royal Academy of Arts in January.
Some of the art of the From Russia: French and Russian Master Paintings exhibition had been taken from private collections after the 1917 revolution.
It is thought some of the 120 works of art - which include paintings by Matisse and Van Gogh and other renowned Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works - could be seized to settle private legal claims related to the paintings.
Purnell said he had assured Russia in a letter earlier this month that the artworks were protected under the State Immunity Act of 1978.

In pictures: Exhibition
Fears behind exhibition row

But Russia's Federal Culture and Cinematography Agency, Roskultura, said it had not received adequate legal guarantees.
Roskultura spokeswoman Natalya Uvarova said: "We have not received a state guarantee from the United Kingdom.
"We have only a guarantee from the culture ministry, which is not enough for the exhibition at such a level. This is the usual practice."
As a result, Mr Purnell said he would bring forward the implementation of the Tribunal Courts and Enforcement Bill 2007, part of which contains the assurances the Russians are seeking.
"Their letter says that that's what they require and that's what we will be doing because we attach such importance to cultural relations as a way of furthering relations between our countries," he told the BBC's World At One programme.
"Because this is such an important exhibition we are prepared to go the extra mile," he added.
The bill, which was passed earlier this year, will be put through parliament when MPs return on 7 January.
Russian officials have yet to respond to the announcement.
The exhibition, which includes works from the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and Moscow's Pushkin Fine Arts Museum, is currently in Dusseldorf, Germany.
The cancellation comes at a time when relations between Russia and the UK are particularly strained.

Relations between the two countries have been strained recently.
"Both the Russian and the British governments deny that this is part of the bigger political disagreement between them," said BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall, "but it's hard not to see it in this context when the list of disputed areas between the two sides is so great."
Relations between the two have worsened since former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in London last year.
In July, Britain expelled four Russian diplomats over Moscow's refusal to extradite a key suspect in the murder.
Russia followed by expelling four British diplomats and, last week, ordered the British Council to close down its two offices outside Moscow by the beginning of January.
The Russian foreign ministry said the council, which promotes British culture abroad, was operating illegally. The British Prime Minister's office denied the claims.
The director of the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Mikhail Piotrovsky, told the BBC politics and culture should not be mixed.
"Remember that Russia and Britain regularly have these flashpoints which come and go," he said.
"Culture should function independently and we have never suffered such a connection.
"We have many projects with Britain. Political relationships change but I sincerely hope that nobody will use this for a fleeting political gesture," he added.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

'INVITATION'TO HUGE DEFENCE FRAUD !

By Allan Urry - BBC World Service.

Global Account Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have helped push US military spending to record levels.
US defence spending has seen a huge rise since 9/11.
But as the nation's defence budget soars, there has been a series of procurement and political scandals surrounding multi-billion dollar contracts.
There is mounting concern about the relationship between the Pentagon, the politicians setting the budgets and defence contractors - sometimes known as the iron triangle.
Congressman Henry Waxman, a Democrat, who chairs the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, argues for urgent reform.
"We need to restore transparency, efficiency and accountability to government contracting and nowhere is that more important than in defence."
His committee was shocked at the scale of the problems revealed through investigations into federal procurement, of which defence accounts for almost three quarters.
"When we have contracts let out and we are seeing so much money involved, the oversight has been discouraged and accountability undermined," he told the BBC.

The oversight committee identified contracts worth a total of $762bn in which there were problems of mismanagement, poor value, and fraud.
"Some of the ways we are handling these contracts is almost an invitation for fraud and abuse," said Mr Waxman.
It is an invitation some politicians found hard to resist.
In a trial in California in October 2007 defence contractor Brent Wilkes was found guilty on all charges relating to corrupt practices with his local congressman, Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a Republican.
According to author Seth Hettana, Wilkes enjoyed $90m worth of defence contracts fixed by his pet congressman, some in exchange for sun and sleaze in Hawaii.

Congressman Randy Cunningham was jailed for corruption.
"This was a lavish vacation that Wilkes threw for Cunningham at a $6,600 a night suite.
"The whole trip was an act of seduction, he instructed his nephew, his right hand man, to make some calls and find some girls.
"He even instructed his employees to lose to Cunningham at poker games. Whatever the congressman needed - a boat payment, a mortgage payment - whatever the issues were in his life, Wilkes would try to take care of it for him."
Cunningham is now in jail with Wilkes' sentence expected next month.

The congressional device which enabled Cunningham to award contracts direct to his business friend is called earmarking.
Earmarking is legal under the US Constitution unless, like Cunningham, you receive bribes or other significant material benefits in direct return for awarding federal contracts.
Critics argue that earmarking can lead to individual politicians authorising federal money to be spent on businesses of their choosing, often with little public scrutiny and without competitive bidding.
As US defence spending has soared, so have earmarks, according to Winslow Wheeler, a former congressional staffer on Capitol Hill who handled earmark issues for Democrats and Republicans.
"It really started taking off after 9/11. In fiscal year 2001 it was about $2bn a year in the Defence Bill; it doubled in that very first year to $4bn. It went from there to $6bn to $8bn. Up to about $10bn for fiscal year 2007."
This huge rise raises questions which go to the heart of the US political system itself, and what is called pork barrel politics - government spending intended to benefit a politician's constituents in return for their political support.

John Murtha has been criticised for Pork Barrel politics.
The prime cuts of pork are found on Defence Appropriations - the same committee on which Randy Cunningham once sat.
Its chairman is now criticised for his heavy use of earmarks, although it is not suggested he has done anything illegal.
Democrat John P Murtha, who has represented a district in Pennsylvania in Congress for more than three decades, has risen to this key position in a committee overseeing half a trillion dollars spending this year.
According to Mr Wheeler, Mr Murtha "is a major porker.
"They have an event every year in Johnstown Pennsylvania - they call it the Murtha Fest, and lots of defence manufacturers come and display their goodies that they want Murtha's help on.
Spending probity
"He gets his popularity in his district from that, he gets his power from making sure the system distributes enough to the people that he wants it distributed to."
Figures from the US watchdog organisation Taxpayers for Common Sense, which analyses government spending, suggest Mr Murtha secured the highest value of earmarks of any congressman from next year's defence bill - $150m.
This watchdog calculates he sent $2bn of federal cash to his district in this way over the years.
Another non-profit watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, also questions this arrangement's probity.
Crew's Melanie Sloan, a former assistant district attorney, said: "Mr Murtha brings tons of money into his campaigns all from defence manufacturers whom he earmarks for. So it's quite a quid pro quo relationship going on there which is very questionable although not illegal because this is the way the system works."
Mr Murtha would not be interviewed for Global Account but in a statement said he had been elected to congress 18 times because he understood the needs and concerns of his constituents and was effective at creating working partnerships between community leaders, businesses and the residents of the region.

But Congressman Henry Waxman believes it is time to rein in the long established but arcane political process of earmarking.
"There is no competition. In reality appropriators are naming the project. Sometimes it makes sense but more often than not, I think that these earmarks are unjustified and a real problem.
"We ought to go back to competition for the work to be done."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

You can hear more about this on BBC World Service, Global Account, 2300 GMT Thursday 20 December.

.

AL-QAEDA TO GIVE 'OPEN INTERVIEW' !

Al-Qaeda's media arm, al-Sahab, has invited individuals, organisations and journalists to submit questions for an open interview with Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Advertisements posted on Jihadist websites said questions sent to them over the next month would be passed to al-Qaeda's deputy leader for his reply.
It said the questions would be sent "without alteration, whether it comes from someone who agrees or disagrees".
The offer also came at the end of an interview by Zawahiri posted on Sunday.
In the video, also produced by al-Sahab, Zawahiri said the US-led coalition in Iraq was "defeated and looking for a way out" and said the decision of UK forces to "flee" Basra showed insurgents were gaining strength.
Iraq took formal responsibility for security in Basra province on Sunday, four-and-a-half years after the invasion.

The adverts published by al-Sahab invited "individuals, organisations and media establishments" to submit questions for an "open interview" with Zawahiri by sending them by 16 January to the websites where it usually posts its messages.
It shows how this group with 7th Century ideology is exploiting 21st Century media capabilities
Bruce HoffmanGeorgetown University
"Care should be taken in making the questions brief and focused," the advert asked.
"We also ask the brothers, the supervisors [of the websites] to collect the questions and transmit them without alteration, whether it is comes from someone who agrees or disagrees," it added.
The advert finished with al-Sahab saying that "with God's help and support" it will try to publish Zawahiri's answers to the questions "as soon as possible".
Egyptian-born Zawahiri has emerged as al-Qaeda's most prominent spokesman in recent years, appearing in at least 16 videos and audiotapes this year - four times as many as its leader, Osama Bin Laden.

The invitation is the first to have been issued by an al-Qaeda leader.
The two have evaded capture since US-led forces overthrew the Taleban in Afghanistan following the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US. They are thought to be hiding on the Afghan-Pakistan border.
IntelCenter, an organisation which monitors Jihadist websites, said the invitation was the first to have been issued by a high-ranking al-Qaeda leader.
Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University in Washington DC, said al-Qaeda wanted to "look more cutting-edge and give the perception of greater legitimacy".
"It shows how this group with 7th Century ideology is exploiting 21st Century media capabilities," he told the Associated Press.
Mr Hoffman said it also revealed that Zawahiri was trying to portray himself more like a true leader than a "homicidal thug" by opening himself up to questioning in a similar fashion to televised political debates.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

QUEEN REACHES OLDEST MONARCH MARK !

The Queen will spend the day on her regular royal duties. The Queen will reach a new milestone when she overtakes Queen Victoria to become the oldest British monarch.
Her great-great grandmother, who was born on 24 May 1819, lived for 81 years, seven months and 29 days.
Buckingham Palace says the Queen will beat the record at about 1700 GMT, taking into account the times of their births and Victoria's death.
But the day will be business as usual for the Queen, as there will be no special event to mark the occasion.
The monarch, who was born on 21 April 1926, will spend the day on her normal duties and has no public engagements or audiences.
The Queen will celebrate 60 years on the throne in 2012, and break Queen Victoria's record as the longest-reigning British monarch on 9 September 2015.
During her reign, the Queen's achievements have already included being the first British monarch to send an e-mail, to have a message put on the moon and to hold a public concert in her back garden.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

'ENOUGH EVIDENCE' TO CHARGE ZUMA !

Mr Zuma is due to deliver a keynote address to the ANC. South Africa's top prosecutor says there is enough evidence to charge the new leader of the governing party, Jacob Zuma, with corruption.
The acting head of the National Prosecuting Authority, Mokotedi Mpshe, said a final decision on when to take action against him was "imminent".
The charges relate to a controversial arms deal, which saw one of Mr Zuma's advisers jailed for 15 years.
Mr Zuma was elected leader of the African National Congress on Tuesday.
The 65-year-old, who denies any wrongdoing, is due to deliver his acceptance speech and lay out his vision for South Africa at the ANC party conference on Thursday.
The BBC's Will Ross, at the conference in Polokwane, says the timing of the prosecutor's announcement has come as a surprise to many people.
Mr Zuma was sacked as deputy president in 2005 by President Thabo Mbeki, after he was implicated in a corruption trial that saw his former financial adviser Schabir Shaik convicted of fraud and corruption.
The case against Mr Zuma was put on hold last year for procedural reasons, but prosecutors said earlier this month that they had new evidence that could lead to renewed charges.

Mr Zuma's supporters have been celebrating his election win.
He was cleared of rape in an unrelated, high-profile case last year.
His supporters say the charges against him were politically motivated.
As the new leader of the ANC, Mr Zuma is in a strong position to become the country's next president when Mr Mbeki's term ends in 2009.
The leadership contest between Mr Mbeki and Mr Zuma was bitterly fought, and divided the ANC.
Afterwards, Mr Zuma's supporters called for unity, saying it was not the moment for triumphalism or revenge.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS" !

"I DONT THINK MUCH OF A MAN

WHO IS NOT WISER TODAY

THAN HE WAS YESTERDAY" !

TOP PAKISTANI ARTIST 'MURDERED' !

Mr Gulgee was internationally renowned. One of Pakistan's best known artists has been found murdered at his home in the southern city of Karachi along with his wife and a servant, police say. They say that the body of Amin Ismail Gulgee, internationally known as Gulgee, was discovered by his son.
Police say that his corpse and the other two bodies were found at the artist's home near the sea in Karachi's upmarket area of Clifton.
The area's chief of police said they were investigating a triple murder.

"All three were apparently strangled," Clifton district police chief Asif Ejaz Sheikh told the AFP news agency.
"It seems the triple murder took place three days ago," he said.
Police said that the artist's car was missing and was thought to have been stolen. They said that all three bodies appeared to have been hit by a blunt instrument and were gagged.
Mr Gulgee was the recipient of several international and national awards, and was best known for his calligraphy and portraits.
The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says that his best known subjects included US Presidents Jimmy Carter and George Bush Senior, the Shah of Iran, King Hussein of Jordan, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, and Pakistani leaders Zulifqar Ali Bhutto and General Ayub Khan.
Mr Gulgee's son, Amin, called the police after he discovered the bodies on Wednesday evening. Amin lives next door to his father and is also a renowned artist.
Our correspondent says that Mr Gulgee's death comes as a big shock to Pakistan's cultural community.
He was hailed as one of the country's greatest living artists, and was feted by national and international leaders.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

KENYA: WHAT'S IN YOUR FRIDGE?

As part of the BBC's season looking at sustainable food, we take a peek in the fridges of people around the world and ask what motivates their food choices.
Alice Omondi is a teacher at Kerarapon Primary School, near Nairobi, Kenya's capital city.
Contents: Fresh produce: oranges, mangoes, bananas, tomatoes, cabbages, carrots, spinach, kale (commonly known as sukuma wiki in Kenya); milk, water and soda.
Origin: It is very difficult to get hold of some types of fruits and vegetables from the local markets, so we often have to rely on the supermarket. However, I would prefer to use the market - where I can buy produce straight from the farmers - as the supermarket is much more expensive.
I am very concerned about issues of food safety, particularly in terms of where vegetables are grown.

FRIDGE SECRETS

Americans on a "time crunch"
China's "over packaging"
French watch the food miles
Palestinian on a tight budget

Here in Nairobi, there are particular areas I know very well, where these vegetables are planted near sewers. So you have to be careful if you are buying them at the market. The supermarkets, however, do a thorough check on source and quality.
When I go to buy food, especially at the supermarket, I check the labels, to see where the food is produced and what is in it. I try to understand before I buy.
In Kenya, I think our farmers are able to produce crops in a sustainable manner. But they get very little help from the government in terms of technical advice and access to loans for large-scale investments. I don't think I could boycott food that was transported by air because some varieties are not available in Kenya. It is the only way to get hold of them.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

JACKSON TO PRODUCE HOBBIT MOVIES.!

Jackson is currently shooting a film of novel The Lovely Bones. Peter Jackson, Oscar-winning director of the Lord of the Rings movies, has signed a deal to produce two films based on JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit.
The filmmaker had been in dispute with New Line Cinema over income generated by the first film in the Rings trilogy.
"I'm very pleased that we've been able to put our differences behind us," said Jackson. "We are delighted to continue our journey through Middle Earth."
A director for the films - prequels to the Rings movies - has yet to be named.
The two Hobbit films will be filmed simultaneously, with their release planned for 2010 and 2011.

Sir Ian McKellen has already expressed an interest in reprising his role as the wizard Gandalf.
In a statement, Jackson said the agreement enabled his Wingnut Films company to "begin a new chapter with our old friends at New Line".
The three films in the Rings trilogy generated $3bn (£1.48bn) at the worldwide box office and won 17 Oscars.
New Line co-chairman Bob Shaye had previously said Jackson would never make The Hobbit "during my watch".

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZUMA WINS ANC LEADERSHIP ELECTION!

Jacob Zuma has defeated South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki to win the leadership of the country's ruling ANC.
Mr Zuma won the votes of more than 60% of the delegates at the leadership conference to claim victory.
The result follows two days of bitter debate, during which President Mbeki was heckled by supporters of Mr Zuma.
Correspondents say that Mr Zuma will now become the frontrunner to take over as president when Mr Mbeki is obliged to stand down in 2009.
Of the 3,834 voting delegates, Mr Zuma received 2,329 to Mr Mbeki's 1,505.
Corruption cloud
The announcement of the result was greeted with chants of "Zuma, Zuma".

LEADERSHIP RIVALS
Thabo Mbeki, 65
Succeeded Nelson Mandela as president in 1999
Presided over economic growth
Accused of not doing enough to reduce poverty
Won bid to host 2010 football World Cup
Seen as aloof
From Xhosa ethnic group

Jacob Zuma, 65
Played key role in fight against apartheid
Plagued by corruption allegations
Backed by trade unions, Communist Party
Seen as charismatic
From Zulu ethnic group

Mbeki: Born into struggle
Zuma: Comeback kid
Vote in pictures

Before leaving the platform, Mr Mbeki embraced Mr Zuma and clasped his rival's hand in congratulation.
Analysts say the result was an emphatic endorsement of Jacob Zuma.
Although Mr Zuma is strongly placed to become the next national president he could still face corruption charges in connection with a multi-million dollar arms deal.
Should Mr Zuma find himself back in court, the position of the deputy party leader is likely to prove crucial.
The contest for deputy was won by Kgalema Motlanthe, previously ANC secretary general and seen as close to Mr Zuma.
He defeated Mr Zuma's former wife, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who is a close ally of President Mbeki.
Divisive contest
After two days of procedural disputes, almost 4,000 ANC members began queuing early on Tuesday to cast their votes for the leadership.
Mr Mbeki arrived shortly after lunch. Asked how his campaign was going, he replied: "So far so good".
The single polling station opened two hours late after a delay with the printing of ballot papers.

Correspondents say it has been the most divisive contest in the long history of the ANC - for some this is a sign of a healthy democracy in action while others fear the split in the ANC could spell trouble for South Africa.
Delegates were warned to behave or face disciplinary action on Monday after rival supporters tried to out-sing each other amid chaotic scenes.
Zuma supporters sang the anti-apartheid song Bring Me My Machine-gun, during pro-Mbeki speeches while Mbeki supporters retorted by singing Mbeki, My President.
Mr Mbeki had been booed and heckled during his opening speech on Sunday.
'Politically motivated'
This is the ANC's first leadership contest in 58 years.
Mr Mbeki had said claims by the Zuma camp that he had centralised power were false. But growing unpopularity with Mr Mbeki's style of leadership had made Mr Zuma favourite.

South African viewpoints
In pictures

Mr Zuma's supporters believe he will do more to reduce poverty in South Africa.
Once close allies, Mr Zuma and Mr Mbeki publicly fell out in 2005 when Mr Zuma was sacked as deputy president over corruption allegations.
The case against Mr Zuma was thrown out by a judge last year. He was also acquitted of rape charges - which he said were politically motivated.
Mr Zuma provoked outrage among Aids activists over the case when he said he had showered after sex with the HIV-positive woman to prevent infection.
Former President Nelson Mandela has said he is saddened by "the nature of the differences currently in the organisation".
The former Archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, has said neither Mr Zuma or Mr Mbeki were suitable candidates.

BNBC NEWS REPORT.

ZIMBABWE TO DEBATE SECURITY LAWS !

Security laws have been used to stop opposition demonstrations. Zimbabwe's parliament is to begin debating proposals to relax tough security and media laws. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has indicated it might back the changes, which could pave the way for it to take part in elections next year.
But MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told the BBC that no final agreement had been reached.
The government and opposition have been discussing the bills during talks brokered by South Africa.

"There is no agreement. What has been there, are paper discussions around issues of elections, around issues of security laws, vis a vis the election environment," said Mr Chamisa, who is part of the MDC faction headed by founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa said a caucus of the governing Zanu-PF party MPs had overwhelmingly supported the proposed amendments.

President Mugabe is trying to extend his 27 years in office. The MDC wants a new constitution to be in place before the March polls, while Zanu-PF wants the elections to take place first.
The existing laws have been used to block opposition political rallies and to shut down privately-owned newspapers.
The proposed amendments concern the Public Order and Security Act (Posa), the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa) and the Broadcasting Services Act.
In terms of the proposed changes, the police would have to give reasons to ban a rally and a magistrate could be asked to overturn a ban.

At present, those who intend to organise public meetings, political rallies or demonstrations can only appeal to the minister of home affairs if the police ban their meeting.
In March, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was severely assaulted after being arrested for attending a banned rally.
Mr Mugabe later said he had "asked for it" by ignoring police warnings.
Under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa), there will be changes to the commission that regulates the country's media.
Members of the commission are to be named from a list submitted by a bi-partisan parliamentary committee and should have media experience.
Although the media is to be opened to foreign owners, foreign journalists will remain barred from working permanently in the country.
Official accreditation for journalists will no longer be compulsory, though non-accredited journalists will not have access to official events.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

US HOUSE HONOURS BURMA'S SUU KYI !

Ms Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years. The US House of Representatives has voted to award Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi its highest honour - the Congressional Gold Medal.
Supporters of the bill, which passed 400-0, said the move was meant to send a message to Burma's military leaders.
"We will continue to pressure the junta to release her and bring freedom... to the people of Burma," said Joseph Crowley, a Democrat.
Ms Suu Kyi has been kept under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years.
Her National League for Democracy (NLD) won polls in 1990 but was never allowed to take power.

"For three decades, Aung San Suu Kyi has valiantly led the non-violent movement in Burma for democracy and human rights," Mr Crowley said after the vote on Monday.
"Her work and dedication to the cause of freedom and individual liberty has earned her recognition throughout the world, including the Nobel Peace Prize.
"Today, the US House of Representatives showed her and the world that she has also won the hearts and minds of the US Congress."
The bill will now be referred to the US Senate, which must also back the measure.
More than 300 individuals and groups have received the Congressional Gold Medal.
George Washington was awarded the first medal, which originally was given to military heroes but was later expanded to include prominent humanitarians, scientists, explorers, artists and others.
Non-American recipients of the medal include Winston Churchill, Pope John Paul II, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and Mother Theresa.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ANGOLAN ACTORS 'KILLED BY POLICE' !

The director of an Angolan crime film says police have shot dead two of his actors after mistaking them for real armed robbers.
The duo were carrying unloaded firearms as they filmed a scene in a rough suburb of the capital Luanda, director Radical Ribeiro told AFP news agency.
He said police roared up to the set and began shooting at close range.
Angolan officials have not commented on the incident. Mr Ribeiro says he had permission to film in the area.
Mr Ribeiro told AFP that police arrived at the scene in a pick-up truck and "started shooting at everybody at close range".
He was "stunned" when he saw the two actors fall down, he added.
"They went on shooting until I shouted out: 'Please don't shoot, this is a movie.'"
The officers then stopped firing and left without attending to the wounded, who were taken to hospital, Mr Ribeiro said.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

WARNING OVER UNRULY ANC CONTEST !

African National Congress delegates have been warned to behave or face disciplinary action, as South Africa's ruling party meets to choose a leader. Supporters of President Thabo Mbeki and his popular former ally Jacob Zuma have been trying to out-sing each other amid chaotic scenes. Mr Mbeki was booed and heckled during his speech on Sunday.

Mr Zuma is the favourite to win. If he does, he would be in a strong position to become South African leader in 2009. Mr Mbeki is barred from serving a third term as national president and the ANC's choice is likely to determine who will be South Africa's next leader in 2009. Heckles Jeff Radebe, a member of the ANC's national executive committee, said it was wrong to boo other party officials.

LEADERSHIP RIVALS

Thabo Mbeki, 65
Succeeded Nelson Mandela as president in 1999
Presided over economic growth
Accused of not doing enough to reduce poverty
Won bid to host 2010 football World Cup
Seen as aloof
From Xhosa ethnic group

Jacob Zuma, 65
Played key role in fight against apartheid
Plagued by corruption allegations
Backed by trade unions, Communist Party
Seen as charismatic
From Zulu ethnic group

Mbeki: Born into struggle
Zuma: Comeback kid

He said "appropriate action" would be taken if such behaviour persisted. "When we came here, we thought there would be discipline, but intimidation is beginning to affect our people," said Deputy Defence Minister Mluleki George, who backs Mr Mbeki, reports the Reuters news agency.

Delegates at the five-day congress in Polokwane, Limpopo, will see the ANC's first leadership contest in 58 years. It had been expected the vote would be held on Sunday evening but, after 11 gruelling hours, the congress broke up to reconvene on Monday. The result may not be known until Tuesday.

Mr Zuma's supporters have been singing his anthem, the anti-apartheid song, Bring Me My Machine-gun, during the speeches of those seen as pro-Mbeki. But on Monday, hundreds of Mr Mbeki's supporters retorted by singing "Mbeki, my president". In his address lasting nearly three hours on Sunday, Mr Mbeki did not mention Mr Zuma by name but stressed the need for "ethical leadership".

Mr Zuma has been warding off allegations of corruption and last year was acquitted of rape charges - he says they were politically motivated. Mr Mbeki said claims by the Zuma camp that he had centralised power were false, which sparked boos and hissing from the floor. Correspondents say if Mr Mbeki were to remain ANC leader he would be well placed to decide who succeeds him as national leader in 2009. Over the weekend, former President Nelson Mandela said: "It saddens us to see and hear of the nature of the differences currently in the organisation."

South African viewpoints
In pictures

On Friday, the former Archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, said neither Mr Zuma or Mr Mbeki were suitable candidates. Once close allies, Mr Zuma and Mr Mbeki publicly fell out in 2005 when Mr Zuma was sacked as deputy president over corruption allegations. The case against Mr Zuma was thrown out by a judge last year but he could still face charges in connection with a multi-million dollar arms deal.

Mr Zuma's supporters believe he would do more to reduce poverty in South Africa. He is backed by the Congress of South African Trade Unions, and the South African Communist Party, both allied to the ANC. But last week, Mr Zuma told the BBC that the ANC economic policy was set by a committee, not an individual, and he would not be changing direction.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS" !

"WHATSOEVER THY HAND FINDETH TO DO

DO IT WITH THY MIGHT" !

US MAKES EU OFFER ON GAMBLING BAN !

The EU says the US is to offer trade concessions as compensation for its refusal to lift internet gambling laws.
Laws passed in the US in October 2006 effectively made it illegal for foreign internet gaming firms to trade there.
In March the World Trade Organization (WTO) delivered a final ruling saying that the US ban was illegal.
The concessions, which relate to mail and storage services among others, will affect how Germany's DHL competes with US-based firms Fedex and UPS.
The proposed deal also includes new US market opportunities for European firms offering testing and analysis services, as well as in research and development.
EU officials did not say how much the deal was worth.

"While the US is free to decide how to best respond to legitimate public policy concerns relating to Internet gambling, discrimination against EU or other foreign companies should be avoided," said Peter Power, spokesman for EU Trade Commissioner Peter MandelsoInternet Gamblingn.
Last year the US stopped US banks and credit card companies from processing payments to online gambling businesses outside the country, effectively killing off the market for overseas gambling firms.
About half of the world's online gamblers are based in the US, and the market is estimated to be worth $15.5bn (£7.7bn).
The WTO ruling said the US was breaking trade law by targeting online gambling firms, without equal application of the rules to US firms offering online betting on horse and dog racing.
Meanwhile, a WTO decision is expected to rule in the coming weeks on a request by Antigua and Barbuda to impose $3.4bn in commercial sanctions against the US.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

FATAH OFFICIAL DETAINED IN GAZA !

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group in control of the Gaza Strip, says it is holding a key adviser to Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. About 30 men seized Omar al-Ghoul at his Gaza home early on Friday, accusing him of collaborating with Israel, his family said.
A Hamas spokesman said he was being questioned over "illegal activities".
Meanwhile, at three people have been killed and 35 wounded by an explosion at a funeral in Gaza City.
Witnesses said a grenade was thrown into the crowd, which was made up mainly of Fatah sympathisers who had gathered for the funeral of a Fatah man killed by an Israeli air strike.
Hamas said the grenade appeared to have been dropped accidentally.
Mr Ghoul, the abducted Fatah adviser, had recently left the Gaza Strip to work for Salam Fayyad, Fatah prime minister, in the West Bank.

Those injured in the funeral explosion sought hospital treatment. Mr Ghoul has been an outspoken critic of Hamas, who seized Gaza in June after ousting their Fatah rivals by force.
He had returned to Gaza for a few days only, to attend a funeral.
Palestinian Information Minister Riyad al-Malki blamed "criminals working for Hamas" and called for Mr Ghoul's immediate release.
"Hamas and all of its parties are responsible for his life," the Reuters news agency reported him as saying.
His detention was a message to Fatah leaders that "Gaza is closed to them", Mr Malki added.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

N. AMERICA SNOWSTORM TIGHTENS GRIP !

Some 40cm (16in) of snow fell in some parts.

Snow causes chaos

A snowstorm that caused major disruption in eastern Canada and the north-eastern US still has Canada's Atlantic provinces in its grip. The storm, which began on Saturday, was one of the worst in the region for decades, Canadian forecasters said. At least 20,000 people in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were without power early on Monday and schools were shut. The driving snow and sleet were blamed for several deaths over the weekend, and caused widespread travel problems. Residents across the Great Lakes region, eastern Canada and New England faced the prospect of digging their way out on Monday, after the storm dumped up to 40cm (16in) of snow.

See a map of Sunday's storms

The weather system was moving north-eastwards with Newfoundland and Labrador next in line for driving snow and sleet. Dave Phillips, a senior climatologist at Canada's weather service, Environment Canada, said the storm was likely to dump more snow in the days ahead. "It's a big one, a dangerous one," he told CTV News. The weekend snowfall forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights across Canada and the US. The snowstorm, which had earlier hit the Midwestern US, brought blizzards, hail, freezing rain and high winds to Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces of Canada late on Saturday and throughout Sunday.

Your pictures: snow storm

In Toronto and Montreal, heavy snow combined with winds gusting up to 70km/h (45 mph) caused conditions that led to several people accidentally driving off icy motorways, transport officials said. One woman was killed near London, Ontario, when her vehicle was hit by a snow plough after she had pulled over to fix a windshield wiper. Slippery roads in the US were blamed for four deaths in Indiana, two in Michigan and one in Wisconsin and one in Pennsylvania.

Around 160,000 customers were left without electricity in parts of Pennsylvania on Sunday after heavy snow damaged power lines. The snowfall comes less than a week after an ice storm claimed 38 lives in the Midwest, most of them in road accidents. Tens of thousands of people in the affected areas of Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri still have no electricity.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

RUSSIAN SHIPS NUCLEAR FUEL TO IRAN !

Russia has delivered its first shipment of nuclear fuel to a reactor it is helping to build at Bushehr in Iran, Russia's foreign ministry has said.
The two sides reached agreement last week on a schedule to finish building the plant after years of delays.
Some Western countries fear Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons but Tehran says its programme is peaceful.
The UN has demanded that Iran halt uranium enrichment but has approved the Russian nuclear fuel deliveries.
Timetable agreed
Enriched uranium is used as fuel in nuclear power stations. When it is more highly enriched, it can be used to make nuclear weapons.
There are two pressurised water reactors at the Bushehr site, one of which is reportedly near completion and likely to be the first major Iranian reactor to go on stream, possibly by mid-2008.

BUSHEHR NUCLEAR PLANT
Begun in 1974 with German assistance
Work halts after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution
Resumed in 1992 with Russian help
13 Dec: Russia and Iran agree to finish plant after numerous delays
Two pressurised water reactors
One believed near completion, could begin operating in eight months.

The nuclear fuel cycle

Russian officials have previously said the plant could be operational within six months of fuel being delivered.
Iran first planned a reactor near the south-western port of Bushehr with German assistance in 1974.
Those plans were abandoned after the Islamist revolution in 1979 but the Russians picked up the project in 1992.
On 13 December, Russia and Iran agreed on a schedule to finish construction on the Bushehr plant after repeated delays.
Russia had said Iran was behind on payments. But many analysts believe Moscow delayed over Tehran's resistance to international pressure to be more open about its nuclear programme.
Enrichment row
The United States has been leading a drive in the UN Security Council to pass a third round of sanctions against Iran.

Iran's key nuclear sites

Russia and China have co-operated with the previous two votes but a US intelligence report two weeks ago said Iran had stopped trying to develop nuclear weapons in 2003, taking some of the steam out of the American pressure.
The latest report on Iran from UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), concluded that Tehran was being more open about some aspects of its programme, but there remained unanswered questions and uranium enrichment had not been halted despite the UN's demands.
The delivery of the nuclear fuel has removed one of the most significant practical sanctions against Tehran, says the BBC's diplomatic correspondent, Jonathan Marcus.
Diplomatic tensions
The Russian company building the plant, Atomstroiexport, said the containers of fuel had been inspected and sealed before delivery by the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The company said the first delivery of 163 canisters of uranium-235 arrived at Bushehr on Sunday.
The full delivery will take up to two months, Atomstroiexport said. The fuel is lowly-enriched uranium which Russia says cannot be used in a nuclear weapon.
The US has said, however, that spent fuel from a reactor can be reprocessed into plutonium for a weapon.
Russia's foreign ministry said it had received assurances from Tehran that the fuel would not be used anywhere but at Bushehr.
The foreign ministry statement urged Iran to stop enriching uranium, saying there was no longer any need.
But a senior Iranian official said his country would not halt uranium enrichment under any circumstances, Reuters news agency said.
Iran has always insisted it has the right to develop the full nuclear cycle, including making the fuel for reactors.
Russia has played its Bushehr card skilfully, says our diplomatic correspondent, but risks significant additional tensions with Washington.
Iran has now been added to the top of a list that includes disagreements over a US missile defence plan, conventional arms control in Europe and the political future of Kosovo.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

THE WORLD THIS WEEK !

A look at what could be dominating the headlines around the world this week - and some key background on those events.

MONDAY 17 DECEMBER
LOOK OUT FOR

Mad about Food: a series of features exploring sustainability and food, including:
Tracing Chilean cherries from tree to tills in the UK
A look at what people have in their fridge, around the world
An interactive laptop link-up with Pakistan
One day in Pakistan

Electing a leader: The Lebanese parliament meets in a new attempt to choose a president. The vote has been delayed several times because the Western-backed government and opposition groups supported by Syria have been unable to agree on a candidate.
Lebanon delays presidential vote

Paris for Palestine: France is to hold an international conference of donors to raise funds for the Palestinian people. The event will be led by the country's Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner.
Kouchner: Hardline humanitarian

Murder hearing: Amanda Knox, the US student suspected of killing her British flatmate, Meredith Kercher, appears in court in the Italian city of Perugia.
Flatmate 'heard Meredith scream'

TUESDAY 18 DECEMBER

Gone fishing: As fish stocks continue to decline, European Union agriculture and fisheries ministers meet in Brussels for an annual marathon meeting to haggle over quotas. The climax, usually a late-night affair, comes on Thursday.
Europe bans bluefin tuna fishing

Changing Spain: Immigrant groups across Spain are to demonstrate appealing for a new amnesty for the country's thousands of illegal migrants.
Spain begins anti-migration ads

WEDNESDAY 19 DECEMBER

Clean slate: Presidential elections are to take place in South Korea. Frontrunner Lee Myung-bak was cleared of involvement in a major fraud case earlier this month.
Probe clears S Korea frontrunner

Meeting of minds: Members of parliament, civil society leaders and politicians are to meet in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, to discuss a draft new constitution to replace the one imposed by Britain at independence in 1964.
Profile: Zambia

THURSDAY 20 DECEMBER

Tens of thousands gather in Mecca to mark EidHoly day: Muslims celebrate the first day of Eid ul-Adha, the festival of sacrifice. The second most important festival in the Muslim calendar, it marks the end of the annual pilgrimage - or Hajj - to the Saudi city of Mecca.
In pictures: Hajj begins in Mecca

China's Las Vegas: It is the eighth anniversary of the handover of the former Portuguese enclave of Macau to China.
Profile: Macau

Papal meeting: Pope Benedict XVI is to meet France's President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Vatican City, in Rome.
Benedict the unlikely pin-up pope

FRIDAY 21 DECEMBER

Chadian authorities say many of the children were not orphans. Zoe's Ark: The trial begins of French aid group workers accused of kidnapping children from Chad. Six people face charges of child abduction after trying to fly 103 children, who they say were orphans, out of the country.
Profile: Zoe's Ark

Breaking up borders: Nine new countries join the 15-country Schengen accord, which allows people to move more freely across borders in most of Europe. The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia are the new members.
Q&A: Schengen Agreement

Bangkok bridge: The leaders of Malaysia and Thailand open a new cross-border bridge. The structure will link Thailand's Narathiwat and Malaysia's Kelantan.
Country profile: Thailand

SATURDAY 22 DECEMBER

Long-serving: Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest-ever British reigning monarch. She overtakes Queen Victoria, who died at the age of 81 years 243 days, in 1901.
In-depth: The Queen at 80

Curtain call: Argentine ballet star Julio Bocca steps on the stage for the final time in Buenos Aires before he retires. The dancer has been delighting audiences for 25 years.
Listen to an interview (in Spanish) with Julio Bocca

SUNDAY 22 DECEMBER

Bangkok vote: Thailand holds it first general election since a coup by army chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin to depose Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in September 2006.
Thai PM deposed in military coup

BBC NEWS REPORT.

PHILIPPINE ISLAMIST 'SHOT DEAD' !

Philippine troops have killed a leading Islamist militant wanted by the US after raiding his safe house in the south of the country, officials say.
Mobin Abdurajak, said to be a senior leader in the Abu Sayyaf group, was wanted for the abduction in 2000 of 21 people from a Malaysian resort.
Regional officials said he died in a shootout when marines swooped on his hideout in the island of Tawi-Tawi.
The United States had offered $20,000 (£9,900) for his arrest.
Mobin Abdurajak was a brother-in-law of Abu Sayyaf chief Khadaffy Janjalani, who was killed in a clash with Philippine troops last year.
"The neutralisation of Abdurajak is part of our campaign to eliminate the Abu Sayyaf terrorists," regional navy chief Emilio Marayag said, according to the Reuters news agency.
In the mainly Catholic Philippines, Abu Sayyaf is the most notorious of several active Muslim rebel groups.
Last week, 14 of its members were jailed for life for abducting 20 people from a luxury beach resort in the western Philippines in 2001.
Three of the victims, including an American, were decapitated.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

HECKLES OPEN ANC ELECTION MEETING !

Supporters of Jacob Zuma in South Africa have heckled his opponents at the start of a conference to elect a new African National Congress leader.
They shouted his name and sang his campaign anthem as Mr Zuma entered the hall with current ANC head and South African President Thabo Mbeki.
Mr Zuma, current ANC deputy, is the favourite to win, despite corruption charges, the BBC's Peter Biles says.
The choice could determine who becomes South Africa's next president.
Mr Mbeki has to step down in 2009 - after serving two terms.
His predecessor, Nelson Mandela, said he was saddened by the rifts within the organisation.
'Bruising affair'
Delegates at the five-day congress in Polokwane, Limpopo, will see the ANC's first leadership contest in 58 years.
They will be voting after what has been a fiercely contested leadership campaign, says our correspondent.
Mr Mbeki and Mr Zuma were sitting near each other on a podium as Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota got up to open the conference.
We're very worried that this leader [Jacob Zuma] had relations with a woman who regarded him as a parent - Desmond TutuFormer Archbishop of Cape Town.

In pictures: ANC election

Some of Mr Zuma's supporters started heckling and booing - as Mr Lekota 's speech was drowned with delegates singing the anti-apartheid song, Bring me my Machine-gun, which has become Mr Zuma's anthem.
In his address lasting nearly three hours, Mr Mbeki said the conference needed to establish the truth about whether the ANC had been involved in an internal struggle that threatened the very survival of the movement.
Thabo Mbeki said the matters affecting Mr Zuma had been a difficult and painful challenge and the ANC needed to deal with the situation without delay.
He said claims by the Zuma camp that he had centralised power were false - sparking boos and hissing from the floor.
Mr Mbeki has already served two terms and cannot lead the country again. But correspondents say if he were to remain ANC leader he would be well placed to decide who succeeds him as national leader.
Meanwhile, Mr Zuma, has conducted a vigorous campaign to wrestle the leadership crown.
He has also been warding off allegations of corruption and last year was acquitted of rape charges.
If he wins, Mr Zuma will be in line to become ANC candidate for the country's presidential polls in two years' time.
Nelson Mandela said he was sad "to see and hear of the nature of the differences currently in the organisation".
In a message to the delegates distributed by the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation, he said: "Whatever decision you are to make at this conference, including decisions about leadership positions in the organisation, let the noble history of the ANC guide you."
On Friday, the former Archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, urged the ANC to reject Mr Zuma.

Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma publicly fell out in 2005. Archbishop Tutu, one of South Africa's most powerful moral voices, said delegates should "not choose someone of whom most of us would be ashamed".
"We're very worried that this leader had relations with a woman who regarded him as a parent," he told South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper.
This was an apparent reference to the woman Mr Zuma was acquitted of raping. She was a family friend less than half his age with whom he had unprotected sex while being aware she was HIV-positive.
Mr Zuma responded by saying it was "the business of the leaders of the Church... [to] pray for people, not condemn them".
Once close allies, he and Mr Mbeki publicly fell out in 2005 when Mr Zuma was sacked as deputy president over corruption allegations.
The case against Mr Zuma was thrown out by a judge last year but he could still face charges in connection with a multi-million dollar arms deal.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

DEADLY US SNOW STORM SPARKS CHAOS!

The latest deadly US winter storm of the season has wreaked chaos at one of America's busiest airports, sparked mass power cuts and claimed two lives.
Storm warnings are in force in a dozen central and north-eastern US states. More than 200 flights were cancelled at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
Slippery roads have been blamed for the deaths of a 24-year-old Michigan woman and a 51-year-old woman in Wisconsin.
More than 100,000 customers are without electricity in parts of Pennsylvania.
Up to 12in (30cm) of snowfall is forecast around Pittsburgh on Sunday, said the National Weather Service.
Around Indianapolis, up to 7in (18cm) of snow is expected and 8in (20cm) is forecast in the Boston area.
Dozens of traffic accidents, most of them minor, have been blamed on vehicles sliding off icy roads.
The snowfall comes less than a week after an ice storm claimed 38 lives in the Midwest.
Tens of thousands of people in the affected areas of Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri still have no electricity.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

VOTE ON MBEKI'S RECORD !

Has Mbeki been good for South Africa?
Yes
No

As South Africa's governing African National Congress prepares to decide whether President Thabo Mbeki should continue to lead the party, Ronald Suresh Roberts, author of Fit to Govern: The Native Intelligence of Thabo Mbeki, says Mr Mbeki has been faithful to its legacy.

President Mbeki has helped South Africa get the World Cup. Last February, Financial Times journalist Alec Russell commented on Thabo Mbeki's "almost other-worldly refusal to pander to the soundbite culture".
This is by far Mr Mbeki's most important and most misunderstood legacy - ensuring that the African National Congress does not stray from its historical principles - the creation of a non-racial and prosperous South Africa.

A discussion document that was circulated in advance of the ANC's national conference last December describes the party's approach to "building a national democratic society."
The ANC cannot, this document urges, "behave like a shapeless jellyfish with a political form that is fashioned hither and thither by the multiple contradictory forces of sea waves."
The elevation of policy discipline above spin-doctoring is not merely Mr Mbeki's personal eccentricity, but instead reflects the party's historical role.

Ever since its founding protests against the 1913 Land Act, the ANC has seen itself as "an organisation for focusing native opinion". The party has always blended moral and political convictions with intellectual leadership.
This historical firmness of purpose can sometimes be hard to grasp, let alone believe, in the spin-dominated ethos of contemporary politics.

Mbeki's insistence upon proper risk assessment of early ARV drugs turns out to have been eminently correct Look at the UK, for example, where Prime Minister Gordon Brown's status as a "conviction politician" did not last long.
The ANC saw Mr Brown's grandstanding demand for the banning of Zimbabwe's leader Robert Mugabe from the European Union/African Union summit in Portugal as the elevation of media management above conviction politics.
And even more than on Zimbabwe, Mr Mbeki's approach to policy-making in the area of HIV/Aids has shown firmness during a public relations disaster.

He has had unambiguous policy successes in moving the global agenda towards a better balance between the roll-out of anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs and the emphasis upon poverty and underdevelopment as the root cause of the horrendous spread of the disease.
In an era of multi-billion dollar lawsuits involving Vioxx and other drugs, Mr Mbeki's insistence upon proper risk assessment of early ARV drugs turns out to have been eminently correct.
Institutions such as the UN now accept the importance of "African solutions."

William Easterly, professor of economics at New York University, now writes unchallenged that "the activists have been only too successful in focusing attention on treatment instead of prevention".

Mr Mbeki was ridiculed for saying this six years ago, but now Easterly's book, The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good, is book of the year in The Washington Post, Financial Times and The Economist.

Meanwhile, on the other issue that Mr Mbeki's critics say compromised his leadership of the ANC - that of the arms deal - media reporting ignores his obvious anti-corruption position which is backed by prosecutions both past and ongoing.

Mbeki's relations with Mugabe showed "firmness"Instead, discourse is dominated by the hearsay of disaffected activists such as Andrew Feinstein, who writes in his recent book: "I was told by someone from the [parliamentary joint investigation team] about a meeting with the president at which they were told who they could and could not investigate."
Is that "fact" by BBC standards?
Meanwhile, those who campaign against arms acquisitions as a matter of principle merely ensure the military irrelevance of African countries as players in the geopolitics of our oil-rich continent and in situations such as Sudan.
Although well-meaning, they enable metropolitan arms to continue to dominate African lives.
The big problem for Mr Mbeki's ANC today is not any supposed drift from its moral and political moorings, but rather the persistence of an appalling metropolitan reporting upon Africa.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS" !

"KINDNESS IS A LANGUAGE WHICH

THE DEAF CAN HEAR AND

THE BLIND CAN SEE" !

GAZA CROWDS MARK HAMAS'S FOUNDING !

The rally came amid high tension between Hamas and Fatah.
Enlarge Image

At least 150,000 people have turned out in Gaza City for a rally to mark 20 years since Hamas was founded. Waving green flags and banners, crowds of Palestinian men, women and children filled a large square for the event. Analysts say turnout is seen as a vital test of support for Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in June from its Fatah rivals.

In a defiant website statement, Hamas's leader in exile, Khaled Mashaal, vowed the group would not renounce violence. Speaking from Damascus, Syria, he said Palestinians were capable of mounting a new uprising against Israeli occupation, like the intifadas of 1987 and 2000. "Whoever thinks that Hamas has reached a dead end is wrong," he added, in his anniversary message to the militant Islamist organisation's website.

HAMAS

Militant group formed in 1987 at the start of first intifada
Aims to drive Israeli forces from the occupied territories
Wants to set up an Islamic state on all of historic Palestine
Dramatically won parliamentary elections in January 2006
Refuses to recognise Israel's right to exist

Who are Hamas?
In pictures: Hamas rally

He also said Fatah leader and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads a moderate government in the West Bank, did not have a mandate to negotiate with Israel. Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya told the crowd the "choice of resistance and jihad" was "the shortest path to liberate Palestine". "This will not be achieved by way of negotiations and concessions and certainly not through... sitting at round tables or exchanging smiles with the killers and executioners of the sons of the Palestinian people."

Hamas, Mr Haniya added, did believe in dialogue but "on the basis of no victor, no vanquished and... without conditions". A huge banner hung from a building near the scene of Saturday's rally read: "We will not recognise Israel." The BBC's Bethany Bell in Jerusalem says the event is a show of strength by Hamas in a Gaza Strip facing deepening political and economic isolation. Tensions between Fatah and Hamas remain high.

Correspondents say Hamas was hoping its anniversary rally would attract more people than the estimated 250,000 Fatah supporters who filled the same square for a rally last month. That event ended with several people dead after Hamas security forces opened fire on a hostile crowd. Fatah has reportedly banned any celebrations being held in the West Bank to mark Hamas's 20th anniversary. On Friday Hamas gunmen in Gaza seized a key adviser to the Palestinian prime minister, accusing the official of collaborating with Israel. On the same day in Gaza City, three people were killed in an explosion at a Fatah-organised funeral. Fatah accused Hamas of being behind the blast.

Israel closed Gaza to all but vital supplies after Hamas seized power in the summer, creating what the World Health Organization has described as an "intolerable" humanitarian situation. Regarded by Israel, the EU and US as a terrorist organisation, Hamas was founded in Gaza in December 1987, after the outbreak of the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ITALY 'MAFIA BOSS 'HELD IN NAPLES !

A Mafia boss considered one of Italy's 30 most dangerous fugitives has been arrested in Naples, police have said. Edoardo Contini, aged 52, was detained in a suburb of the southern city on Friday night. Investigators believe he is one of the most powerful bosses of the Neapolitan Mafia, the Camorra.

Italy has seen a number of high-profile arrests since last month's seizure of the Sicilian Mafia chief, Salvatore Lo Piccolo, know as "the boss of bosses". "Edoardo Contini was perhaps the most dangerous boss in Naples," Italian Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said in a statement. Mr Amato said police had been on Mr Contini's trail for more than a year. Interior Minister. Francesco Forgione, president of the Italian parliament's anti-Mafia commission, said described Mr Contini's cartel as "one of the most dangerous and violent". Mr Contini had been on the run since 2000, and is reported to have spent some of his years in hiding in northern Europe.

The Reuters news agency reported that large quantities of underwear and socks had been found in the villa where Contini was hiding, suggesting he used to throw away his dirty laundry rather than having it washed, for fear of being caught. He is suspected of running extortion rackets and drug trafficking for the Camorra and being a member of the organisation's ruling board, or "cupola". His arrest appears to be the latest success for Italian police fighting organised crime. "We said that we would catch them one-by-one. That's what we're doing," Mr Amato said.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZIMBABWE'S TOP ATTORNEY SUSPENDED!

Mr Mugabe will decide whether the law officer should keep his job. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has suspended his attorney general over allegations he abused his office, state media has reported.
A three-member tribunal has been appointed to investigate claims Sobusa Gula-Ndebele helped a fugitive banker, the state Herald newspaper said.
He was briefly detained last month accused of corruption and could face a maximum 15 years in jail if convicted.
Local media claimed the charges against the law chief were politically-driven.
Mr Mugabe's cabinet secretary said Mr Gula-Ndebele was formally suspended on Friday and that the tribunal would recommend to the president whether he should keep his job.
The attorney general is accused of telling banker James Mushore he would be spared charges in connection with alleged currency offences if he returned to Zimbabwe from Britain.
Mr Gula-Ndebele met the banker in a restaurant in Zimbabwe in September without informing the authorities that Mr Mushore was back in the country, it is alleged.
The financier, who had been on the police's wanted list since 2004, was reportedly arrested in Harare in October and charged with violating currency regulations at a bank in the Zimbabwean capital.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

GOOGLE DEBUTS KNOWLEDGE PROJECT !

The knol system is an attack on Wikipedia, say experts. Google has kicked off a project to create an authoritative store of information about any and every topic.
The search giant has already started inviting people to write about the subject on which they are known to be an expert.
Google said it would not act as editor for the project but will provide the tools and infrastructure for the pages.
Many experts see the initiative as an attack on the widely used Wikipedia communal encyclopaedia.

Writing about the project on the official Google blog, Udi Manber, one of the heads of engineering at the search firm, said it was all about sharing useful knowledge.
By indexing the web, Google strives to make information more easily accessible. However, wrote Mr Manber, not all the information on the web was "well organised to make it easily discoverable".
By getting respected authors to write about their specialism Google hopes to start putting some of that information in better order.
The system will centre around authored articles created with a tool Google has dubbed "knol" - the word denotes a unit of knowledge - that will make webpages with a distinctive livery to identify them as authoritative.

Mr Manber wrote: "A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read."
The knol pages will get search rankings to reflect their usefulness. Knols will also come with tools that readers can use to rate the information, add comments, suggest edits or additional content.
Revenue from any adverts on a knol page will be shared with its author.
Industry commentator Nicholas Carr said the knol project was a "head-on competitor" with Wikipedia. He said it was an attempt by Google to knock ad-free Wikipedia entries on similar subjects down the rankings.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

RUSSIA'S DEEP SUSPICION OF THE WEST!

Rupert Wingfield Hayes reports on Russia's view of the outside world after its foreign minister accuses Britain of deliberately sabotaging relations with Moscow.

Putin's rule has reversed moves to turn Russia towards the West. Living in Moscow, you often get the feeling Russia would really prefer it if the rest of the world just went away and left Russia alone.
Take Moscow itself for example. It is Russia's biggest, most developed and most cosmopolitan city.
But if you can't read the Cyrillic alphabet getting around is almost impossible.
Only in the last year has the immigration department finally relented and starting printing immigration cards in English.
Before that foreign tourists arriving at Moscow's ghastly Sheremetyevo airport could be seen scratching their heads and muttering things like: "What the hell does this mean?"
And it is not just tourists that find it hard.
I was recently chatting to the manager of a large Scandinavian company that is investing hundreds of millions of pounds in Russia. I asked him how his company was treated by the authorities.
"Well, it's not so easy," he said with a grin and a shrug. "You often get the feeling they don't really want us here."
"That's extraordinary," I said. "You are bringing investment and jobs and technology to Russia."
"Yes," he agreed.
Russia's attitude to the outside world could be summed up as: "We don't trust you" and, "Thank you, but we can do it ourselves."

Listening to Mr Lavrov, you would think the Cold War had not ended. Take the announcement this week that almost all the British Council's offices in Russia are to be closed.
In the 1990s Britain spent millions of pounds setting up 15 British Council centres across Russia.
They established English teaching programmes, set up libraries, helped local schools improve their language teaching, and gave out scholarships to study in Britain.
It was part of a grand post-Soviet plan to engage Russia, to pull it out of its isolation and into the Western sphere.
But from the outset the British Council was viewed by the authorities with deep suspicion.
The KGB, or FSB as it had now become, clearly saw it as a front for British spying. In other words: "We don't trust you."

Youths were told to "take control" of key buildings. In the last few weeks Russian suspicion of the outside world seems to have reached a new level of hysteria.
The day after Russia's parliamentary elections last week we awoke to find thousands of fanatical young Putin supporters patrolling the streets of Moscow.
They had been told by their Kremlin masters to take control of "key buildings" to prevent any attempt at a political take-over by "foreign-backed groups".
Among the buildings targeted for special attention were the British Embassy and the BBC bureau.
When I went outside to ask them why they were picketing us, the group of callow youths were hard put to come up with an answer.
"We are here to make sure no-one tries to steal our victory," one young woman tried.
Her comrades looked sullen and cold. I felt sorry for them.
I wondered if they really believed their own rhetoric. Where was all this paranoia coming from?

It just so happens that the day Russia ordered the British Council offices to close down this week, I was sitting down inside the massive granite edifice that is the Russian foreign ministry, to interview Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Mr Lavrov is tall and urbane. He speaks beautiful English, French, and according to his biography, Sinhalese, which he learned while posted to Sri Lanka in the 1970s.
He spent more than 15 years living in New York. Surely no xenophobe he.
Russia is in a deep funk about its position in the world. It is a huge country with an equally large inferiority complex.

But to hear Mr Lavrov you would think the Cold War had never ended.
He described a world in which America is seeking to contain Russia.
He said Russia had watched as America has pushed the borders of Nato ever further eastwards, swallowing up Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. Next it will be Georgia.
He described Washington's plans to build missile bases in Poland and the Czech Republic as part of a network of new missile bases from Alaska to Japan, all designed to encircle Russia.
What is clear is that Russia is in a deep funk about its position in the world. It is a huge country with an equally large inferiority complex.
In the 1990s it lost an empire, and with it, the respect and prestige it feels it deserves.
It blames the West and particularly America and Britain.
Last week Andrei Lugovoi, the man wanted in Britain for the poisoning murder of Alexander Litvinienko, was elected to parliament as an ultra-nationalist MP.
At the time the sole surviving MP from Russia's pro-Western liberal parties lost his seat in parliament.
Speaking afterwards one of his colleagues put it to me this way: "In the 1990s we had an opportunity to turn Russia outwards towards the West. But we failed. Now it's gone, and it won't be back for at least a generation."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

10 THINGS !

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

1. Renowned atheist Professor Richard Dawkins likes singing Christmas carols.
More details

2. The White House grounds are a National Park.
More details

3. The Australian town of Eucla has its own time zone.
More details

4. Pentonville prison, when built in 1842, had toilets in all the cells. They were later taken out.
More details

5. Church of England vicars don't have to wear a collar if there's a "justifiable cause".
More details

6. Ike Turner made what's widely considered to be the first rock 'n' roll record - Rocket 88 - in 1951.
More details

7. Iago in Othello is the third longest part in all of Shakespeare's plays.
More details

8. The strength of wine has increased from 11.5% alcohol by volume (ABV) to 13.5% ABV in recent years.
More details

9. Police were banned from striking in 1919, after walk-outs that year by officers in London and Liverpool.
More details

10. Anyone convicted of a criminal offence is bound to pay a £15 "victims' surcharge".
More details
BBC NEWS REPORT.

CHRIS EVERT TO WED GOLFER NORMAN!

Norman and Evert have both been through divorces in the past year. Former world tennis number one Chris Evert has announced her engagement to Australian golfer Greg Norman.
The American tennis star made the announcement in South Africa, where her fiance is competing in the Open.
Both have been divorced in the past year, with Evert ending 18 years of marriage to skier Andy Mill. She was previously married to John Lloyd.
Norman reached a multi-million dollar divorce settlement with Laura Andrassy, his wife of 26 years, in September.
The US tennis star was in South Africa to open a Chris Evert tennis centre at Pearl Valley, the venue for this year's South African Open golf championship.

Evert watched her fiance in action in the South African Open.
Asked about a diamond ring she was wearing, Evert said: "This is an engagement ring and we were engaged four days ago.
"It was Sunday night while we were coming over here."
No date has yet been announced for the wedding.
Chris Evert, 52, won 18 Grand Slam singles titles during her career, at least one every year from 1974 to 1986.
She was engaged to US tennis star Jimmy Connors - both won singles titles at Wimbledon in 1974 - but they never married, and she later wed British tennis player John Lloyd.
She has three sons from her marriage to Andy Mill.
Norman, also 52, has two children, and won the British Open in 1986 and 1993.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

MUGABE LOOKS TO PROLONG HIS RULE!

By Peter Biles - BBC Southern Africa Correspondent

Mr Mugabe could stay in power for six more years. President Robert Mugabe has seen off his rivals within Zanu-PF and secured the party's nomination for the presidential elections scheduled for next March.
The challenge to Mr Mugabe's rule from factions within the ruling party has dissipated in recent months.
Jonathan Moyo, Mr Mugabe's former information minister and now an independent MP, says two Zanu-PF groupings - one led by Rural Housing Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and the other by Vice-President Joyce Mujuru - have been publicly supporting Mr Mugabe's endorsement as presidential candidate.
Yet, only a few months ago, Mr Mnangagwa and Mr Mujuru had both been seen as possible successors should Mr Mugabe have been persuaded to leave office.
"Behind the scenes, there is widespread disgruntlement," says Mr Moyo.
"There is a rude awakening that Mugabe will not step down voluntarily, and there is nothing that can be done, using party procedures, to deal with his succession."
Mugabe's intention is to die in office, which is regrettable -Morgan Tsvangirai, Opposition leader
Eldred Masunungure, a political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, says the rival factions within Zanu-PF have to regroup.
"They've been overwhelmed by the Mugabe wing, but they lacked the wherewithal to reverse what was a fait accompli [Mugabe's endorsement].
"They're not happy with Mugabe as presidential candidate for the 2008 elections. They won't take this lying down, but for the moment, they're a defeated lot".

President Mugabe has undoubtedly strengthened his position in the party.
Two weeks ago, he also managed to draw thousands of supporters on to the streets of Harare for what was billed as a "Million Man and Woman March".
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who heads one faction of the divided Movement for Democratic Change, says Zimbabwe is in "deep crisis".

Food and fuel remain in short supply.
He insists that at the age of 83, Robert Mugabe must retire.
"His generation has played its part, and must hand over to the next generation but sadly, Mugabe's intention is to die in office, which is regrettable," Mr Tsvangirai told a meeting of the Royal Commonwealth Society in Kampala last month.
In his recent state of the nation address to parliament, President Mugabe described progress in the ongoing talks between Zanu-PF and the MDC that are intended to pave the way to free and fair elections in March 2008.
Mr Mugabe said there had been "constructive engagement" and "a narrowing of differences" between the two sides.

However, the MDC remains concerned about continuing political violence against its supporters on the ground, and has accused the government of insincerity.
In the meantime, there is no sign of a reversal of Zimbabwe's economic decline.
Food and fuel remain in short supply, and power cuts have become a regular feature of daily life.
With the health system seriously degraded, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of pregnant women making their way to neighbouring South Africa, to avoid having to give birth at hospitals in Zimbabwe.
"Things have collapsed in Zimbabwe," says Mr Moyo. "This is not exaggeration. It's reality".
BBC NEWS REPORT.

MUSHARRAF ASSUMES NUCLEAR CONTROL!

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has put the country's nuclear weapons under the control of the president, rather than the prime minister.
The president issued an ordinance - which has to be ratified by parliament some time over the next six months - which formalised his control on Friday.
His move comes amid concern abroad that the nuclear arsenal could fall into the hands of Islamist extremists.
The military says that its nuclear weapons security is "foolproof".
President Musharraf assumed control of his country's nuclear weapons by taking command of the National Command Authority (NCA), the body which is responsible for operating them.

In 2004 AQ Khan admitted to passing nuclear secrets.
General elections are due to be held in Pakistan on 8 January and many commentators predict that if the vote is fair, a government hostile to President Musharraf could emerge.
Army spokesman Maj Gen Waheed Arshad said there was a consensus among political parties in Pakistan that nuclear weapons should be controlled by the NCA.
He said it was important that the make-up of this body should be put on a firm legal footing before the elections.
"There is a transition in process and the country is returning to full democracy, so whatever things were left to be done are being done," he said.
The security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal has been of worldwide concern in recent months because of spread of pro-Taleban militancy.

The president has temporary control of the nuclear arsenal.
President Musharraf established the NCA in 2000, two years after Pakistan detonated several atomic devices to establish itself as the Islamic world's only declared nuclear weapons power.
Four years after the first tests, the country's top nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, was exposed as the head of an international black market in nuclear technology.
Today Pakistani officials remain sensitive to suggestions that Pakistan's nuclear weapons - the country's main source of defence against arch-rival India - might not be under firm control.
Last month the authorities strongly condemned suggestions by two American academics that American forces could enter Pakistan to prevent radical militants Islamists from getting their hands on a nuclear device.
"The NCA took note of the hostile campaign in a section of the international media with regard to Pakistan's nuclear assets," said a statement on Friday.
"While reiterating that the security of Pakistan's nuclear assets was foolproof, it advised against creating irresponsible alarm."
The statement said that Pakistan was capable of defending its interests and cautioned those "contemplating misadventures".
Last month Pakistan confirmed that the US was helping ensure the security of its nuclear weapons.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS" !

"YOU WILL BE RENEWED BY THE RENEWING

OF YOUR MIND" !

A-QAEDA TAPE REJECTS ANNAPOLIS!

The tape called for Muslims to reject Middle East peace talks. Al-Qaeda's deputy leader has purportedly said Arab leaders have betrayed the Palestinians by attending US-hosted Middle East talks last month.
In an internet audio message attributed to Ayman al-Zawahiri, Muslims are urged to reject the talks.
The Annapolis conference has kicked off the first major Israeli-Palestinian peace drive in seven years.
Most Arab nations, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, attended the talks.
"The Arab states and governments were present as false witnesses to the latest of the treacherous deals to sell Palestine," the message says.
It was posted on Islamist web sites on Friday.
The message calls on Muslims to "stand with your brothers in Palestine... and do not leave them alone in the face of... the compromising rulers and the Crusader-Zionist aggression".
At Annapolis, near Washington, Israeli Prime Minister and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to seek a resolution to their conflict, resulting in a Palestinian state by the end of 2008.
US President George W Bush pledged to fully support the process throughout his last year in office.
The Annapolis talks were attended by more than 40 other countries and international organisations.
High-level delegations represented key Arab states such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Previous messages attributed to Zawahiri have urged Muslims to unite in global jihad - holy struggle - and for the governments of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to be overthrown.
Egyptian-born Zawahiri is regarded as Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZIMBABWE'S FARM SEIZURE BLOCKED !

The land reform programme has been accompanied by violence. A southern African regional court has ordered Zimbabwe not to proceed with the seizure of a white farmer's land.
The Namibia-based Southern African Development Community (Sadc) tribunal ruled in favour of Mike Campbell, who argued that the seizure was racist.
The outcome is seen as a blow to President Robert Mugabe's programme to transfer land to the black majority.
The ruling should allow Mr Campbell to remain on his farm until Zimbabwe's Supreme Court hears a group challenge.
Mr Campbell had asked the Sadc tribunal to overturn the seizure of his farm on the grounds that it was an example of racial discrimination, which the Sadc treaty outlaws.
Most of Zimbabwe's 4,000 white farmers have been forced off their land since 2000 under a government programme.
Mr Mugabe, who is set to run for re-election in March, says the programme is to reverse imbalances in land ownership resulting from the colonial era.
His critics say it is a cynical ploy to buy votes by distributing land to his supporters, which has led to a collapse in Zimbabwe's agricultural production.
Mr Campbell is one of 11 farmers from Chegutu, south-west of Harare, who faces criminal charges for refusing to leave his land.
The farmers could face up to two years in jail if found guilty, say reports.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ALGERIA : A NEW FRONT FOR AL-QAEDA?

By Roger Hardy BBC Middle East analyst

The bombings in Algiers hit UN buildings and a bus full of students. Is Algeria experiencing a resurgence of the violence it suffered during the civil war of the 1990s, or is its conflict becoming internationalised?
When a local Islamist group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), re-branded itself in January 2007 as "al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb", some experts were sceptical, seeing the move as tactical opportunism.
Now they are not so sure.
Over the last year, the group has launched a string of operations, including an attempt to assassinate Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and two attacks in the heart of the capital, Algiers.
On 11 April, a triple suicide bombing left 33 people dead. The latest attacks, on Tuesday, killed at least 26 people, although some officials have said more than twice as many died.
The method, the timing and the targets all appear to bear the hallmarks of a group of the al-Qaeda type.

ATTACKS IN ALGERIA IN 2007
11 December: twin car bombs kill at least 26 including 10 UN staff in Algiers
8 September: 32 die in bombing in Dellys claimed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
6 September: 22 die in bombing in Batna claimed by al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb
July: Suicide bomber targets barracks near Bouira, killing nine
May: Dozens killed in run-up to elections, in fighting between military and militants
April: 33 killed in Algiers in attacks claimed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
March: Three Algerians and a Russian killed in attack on gas pipeline workers
February: Seven bombs kill six east of Algiers

Profile: Al-Qaeda in N Africa
Algeria's shifting violence

The Islamists who fought the Algerian government in the 1990s used brutal methods, but suicide car bombings were not among them.
Now they are the method of choice.
The timing of recent attacks, on the 11th day of the month, suggests the perpetrators were paying homage to the attacks of 9/11.
And, perhaps most significant of all, one of the main targets of Tuesday's attacks was a complex of buildings used by the United Nations.
For the groups which were active in the 1990s, it would have made no sense to attack the UN. Their quarrel was with a military-backed regime, which they saw as illegitimate.
But al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb (AQLIM) holds the UN in open contempt. It refers to it - in jihadi terminology - as a "slave of America".

The North African group typifies the "new" al-Qaeda.
Like its counterparts in Iraq and elsewhere, it uses the al-Qaeda label but probably has little or no operational links with Osama Bin Laden and his movement
AQLIM is thought to have between 600 to 800 fighters.
Experts believe it is linked nevertheless to a wider web of international networks.
North African governments are worried that local groups in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia may be starting to link up under the umbrella of the new movement.
European governments are increasingly alarmed about ties between Islamists in North Africa and their counterparts in Europe.
Finally, there appears to be an Iraq connection. It is not just that methods used in Iraq, such as car bombings, are being imitated elsewhere.
The Algerian authorities have recently captured a number of Islamists who have returned home from Iraq.
If these do indeed represent a new breed of global jihadist, they may prove to be a formidable challenge for both regional and Western governments.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

KENYA'S FIRST LADY SLAPS OFFICIAL !

By Karen Allen - BBC News, capital.

It is not the first time the first lady has been steeped in controversy. A Kenyan broadcaster has lodged an official complaint after video images of the president's wife slapping an official were seized and erased.
Nation TV filmed Lucy Kibaki slapping the official during an independence day celebration at State House in Nairobi.
He had mistakenly introduced Kenya's first lady by the name of the woman widely alleged to be her love rival.
In 2005, Mrs Kibaki was accused of slapping a cameraman in a protest over coverage of her row with a neighbour.
This gaffe comes at a sensitive time as Kenya prepares to elect a new president in two weeks.
When the official from the president's office mistakenly introduced the first lady by the name of the woman widely believed to be President Mwai Kibaki's second wife, Mrs Kibaki marched up to him and promptly slapped him around the face. In Kenya it is not unusual for a man to have several wives.
But the president has repeatedly denied that he has another wife, even though it has long been a source of speculation in Kenyan society.
Nation TV, one of the broadcasters covering the event, had its tape seized by security officials.
The slapping incident was promptly erased before the tape was handed back.
The TV station has now made an official complaint to Kenya's Media Council.
It is not the first time that the first lady has been steeped in controversy.
She found herself in the spotlight two years ago when she allegedly slapped a cameraman after storming into a newsroom to protest her treatment by the media.
The cameraman tried to sue for assault, but the case was thrown out of court.
This latest attack will be a source of embarrassment for President Kibaki.
In two weeks time he will fight for a second presidential term in what it likely to be one of the most closely contested political battles ever seen in Kenya.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

DEADLY BOMBING IN SOMALI MARKET !

At least 17 people have been killed in a mortar attack on the main market in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.
Ethiopian troops backing the interim Somali government are reported to be behind the shelling of Bakara market in which more than 40 people were injured.
Eyewitnesses said the shells landed among shoppers, cutting people down.
Meanwhile, a senior national security ministry official has said that 80% of the country is now outside government control and is not safe.
Sheikh Qasim Ibrahim Nur also warned that Islamist insurgents had regrouped and were poised to launch a major strike.
The BBC's East Africa correspondent Karen Allen says it is a rare admission of the fragility of the transitional government, which is backed by troops from neighbouring Ethiopia.

Living in the danger zone

Ethiopia helped it end the Union of Islamic Courts' (UIC) six-month rule over large parts of southern Somalia, last December.
Our correspondent says the latest flare-up of fighting is widely believed to be an escalation in the conflict.
"It was a very horrific scene to see mortars landing on an area crammed with innocent civilians," Saleban Haji Muse, whose brother died in the market attack, told the BBC.
The attack took place a few hours after heavily armed insurgents engaged in a fire fight with the Ethiopian troops in a northern district of the city.
Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies face increasing criticism from the international community.
They have been accused of indiscriminate attacks on civilians, in an effort to try and stop the spread of an Islamist insurgency, our reporter says.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

RARE JK ROWLING BOOK FETCHES £2m !

JK Rowling recently gave her first reading of the book. A handwritten copy of author JK Rowling's new book, which will never be published, has sold for almost £2m.
Rowling wrote and illustrated seven copies of the Tales of Beedle the Bard, but is offering only one for sale.
The collection of fairy tales, which is mentioned in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, had been expected to fetch up to £50,000 by Sotheby's.
All the proceeds of the auction in London are being donated to Rowling's charity Children's Voice.
"I am stunned and ecstatic," said Rowling after the sale.
"This will mean so much to children in desperate need of help. It means Christmas has come early to me."
After a bidding war between six auction participants, the book was bought by a representative from London fine art dealers Hazlitt Gooden and Fox.
To whoever now owns this book, thank you - and fair fortune be yours!
JK Rowling dedication inside the bookSotheby's deputy director Dr Phillip Errington described it as "one of the most exciting pieces of children's literature" to have passed through the auction house.
The author will give away the remaining six copies of the book to those closely connected with the Potter novels.
The Tales of Beedle the Bard played a central role in the seventh book.
A volume was left to Hermione Granger by Hogwarts head teacher Albus Dumbledore.
Leather bound
It provided clues to help Harry and his friends in their quest to defeat his nemesis Lord Voldemort.
Each of the seven copies is bound in brown Morocco leather and mounted with different semi-precious stones.
A dedication written in the front of the book says: "Six of these books have been given to those most closely connected to the Harry Potter books during the last 17 years.
"This seventh copy will be auctioned, the proceeds to help institutionalised children who are in desperate need of a voice.
"So to whoever now owns this book, thank you - and fair fortune be yours!"

BBC NEWS REPORT.

EU LEADERS SIGN LANDMARK TREATY!

The treaty was signed at Lisbon's historic Jeronimos monastery. EU leaders have signed a treaty in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, that is expected to greatly alter the way the 27-nation body operates.
The treaty creates an EU president and a more powerful foreign policy chief.
The document, signed at a ceremony at the city's historic Jeronimos Monastery, also scraps veto powers in many policy areas.
It is a replacement for the EU constitution, which was abandoned following French and Dutch opposition.
EU leaders insist that the two texts are in no way equivalent.
But the Lisbon treaty incorporates some of the draft constitution's key reforms, and several governments face domestic pressure over the document.

KEY LISBON TREATY REFORMS

Creates new European Council president
New foreign policy supremo to increase EU profile
Commissioners reduced from 27 to 18
Removes national vetoes in around 50 policy areas
Voting weights between member states redistributed
No reference to EU symbols such as the flag and anthem
Treaty faces referendum in Ireland and must be ratified by all other EU parliament.

Q&A: Lisbon Treaty
Send us your comments
Mark Mardell's Euroblog

In a speech before the signing, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called on European leaders to use the treaty to make freedom, prosperity and solidarity an everyday reality for all European citizens.
"From this old continent, a new Europe is born," he said.
Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said the treaty would create a more modern, efficient and democratic union.
"The world needs a stronger Europe," he said.
The leaders signed the treaty, translated into the EU's 23 official languages, using specially engraved silver fountain pens as a choir sang Beethoven's Ode to Joy.
UK signing
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown signed the treaty later in the day after missing the the ceremony, citing a prior engagement in the British parliament.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband attended the signing ceremony.
The UK's opposition Conservatives accused Mr Brown of "not having the guts" to sign the treaty, which is politically controversial in Britain, in public.

Symbol of Portuguese history

Having started this year with a celebration of its 50th birthday, the EU hopes the signing of the Lisbon treaty will end the serious mid-life crisis brought about by the death of the constitution, the BBC's Oana Lungescu reports.
There will be a lot of relief, said a senior European diplomat, but also some apprehension about what happens next.
Ireland is the only country planning to hold a referendum, but most voters there seem either undecided or indifferent.
Parliaments in Britain, the Netherlands and Denmark are also expected to give a turbulent reception to the 250-page text.
However, Germany, France and Poland have pledged to be among the first to ratify it, so that the new reforms can come into force in 2009 as planned.

The treaty is a slimmed-down version of the European constitution, with a more modest name and without any reference to EU symbols such as the flag and anthem.
It is meant to ease decision-making, by scrapping national vetoes in some 50 policy areas, including sensitive ones such as police and judicial co-operation.
There will also be a foreign policy chief, controlling a big budget and thousands of diplomats and officials, and a permanent EU president appointed for up to five years.
But some already fear that instead of giving Europe a strong single voice in the world, the new posts will only generate more rivalry, our correspondent adds.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS" !

"WHEN ANGRY ,

COUNT TEN BEFORE YOU SPEAK:

IF VERY ANGRY,

ONE HUNDRED" !

CANADA MP'S TO END ISOTOPE CRISIS

Canadian MPs have passed an emergency bill to reopen a nuclear reactor that supplies hospitals with two-thirds of the world's medical isotopes.
The shutdown has caused delays for thousands of cancer patients worldwide.
The reactor in Ontario was closed last month for scheduled maintenance, but regulators have delayed its reopening over safety concerns.
The bill, which has to be approved by the Senate, would allow the reactor's operators to bypass the regulators.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Tuesday that there was no risk of a nuclear accident.
The Ontario Association of Nuclear Medicine said 50,000 Canadians and 160,000 Americans would have their tests postponed every month as along as the reactor remained shut.
The Chalk River reactor was shut for routine maintenance on 18 November.
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission refused to allow it to reopen after discovering that it had been operating for a year without the required emergency power system connected to two cooling pumps.
This ensures the pumps have power even if hit by an earthquake, fire, flood or tornado.
Atomic Energy of Canada, the government-owned company which operates the reactor, said it could restart the reactor using an emergency pump.
Mr Harper, who heads a Conservative minority government, told parliament on Tuesday that he had independent advice "indicating there is no safety concern with the reactor".
The Senate is expected to pass the legislation on Wednesday, after which production would begin immediately.
The isotopes are injected as a radioactive dye into patients with cancer or other diseases to allow doctors to take detailed scans.
They cannot be stockpiled because they have a short shelf life.
Doctors have described the shortage of medical nuclear material as "potentially catastrophic".

BBC NEWS REPORT.

RAIDERS TARGET GERRARD'S MANSION!

Steven Gerrard was playing football in Marseille at the time. Steven Gerrard has become the sixth player to be burgled while playing football for Liverpool.
The 27-year-old's wife Alex Curran, who was in the property at the time of the incident, was left shaken following the raid in Formby, Merseyside.
Merseyside Police have described the raid on Tuesday night at about 2130 GMT as a "confrontational burglary".
A spokesman for Liverpool Football Club said their first concerns were for the player, Ms Curran and their children.

The players' homes targeted

The England star was away playing in the Champions League against Marseille at the time of the incident.
It is not known if the player's children were in the property when the burglary took place.
Ian Cotton, spokesman for Liverpool Football Club, said: "We were shocked to hear the news last night after the game in Marseille.
"Our first concerns are for the welfare of Alex, Steven and the family.
"The club takes this extremely seriously and we will be looking at ways to provide cover for the players' houses while they are away with the club on domestic and international duty."
Gerrard is the sixth player to be targeted while playing for the team since June 2006.
Porsche stolen
Three weeks ago, striker Dirk Kuyt's home in Woolton was targeted by thieves while he was away on international duty with Holland.
Defender Daniel Agger had his home in Caldy, Wirral, burgled in September last year and striker Peter Crouch's house in Alderley Edge was targeted in the same month while he was on England duty.
Current goalkeeper Pepe Reina was burgled while he played for Liverpool in last May's Champions League semi-final against Chelsea.
His Porsche was taken during the raid and later found burnt-out in west Derby.
In June 2006 the Merseyside home of former Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek, was also targeted by thieves.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

SUDANESE PEACE DEAL BACK ON TRACK!

Sudan's southern former rebels have said they will rejoin a national unity government in an apparent end to the two-month political crisis.
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) withdrew from the government in October, jeopardising a peace deal.
But the SPLM agreed to end its boycott after its leader Salva Kiir met Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir.
They agreed funding for a census and a timetable to pull out troops either side of Sudan's north-south border.
They have also announced that the government will move to the southern capital, Juba, every three months.
Officials said this would be an important symbolic gesture to help develop key ties between the power-sharing partners.
But there was no deal on the demarcation of the disputed oil-rich Abyei region after the two-hour meeting between the leaders.
The BBC's Amber Henshaw in Khartoum says many people were afraid Sudan would slide back into civil conflict, if the two sides did not resolve their differences.

The SPLM withdrew its ministers from the government, accusing President Bashir's National Congress Party of failing to implement the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended the 21-year civil war. SPLM Secretary-General Pagan Amum said most issues had been resolved.

SPLM DEMANDS

Northern troops in south - resolved
Sharing oil wealth - resolved
Census ahead of 2011 referendum - resolved
Status of Abyei - outstanding

"We have achieved a lot... We have resolved all the outstanding issues that caused the crisis, with the exception of Abyei," he said after Tuesday's late night meeting between Mr Kiir and Mr al-Bashir.
"The chairman of the SPLM will be issuing directives to the SPLM ministers to return to government," he added.
A timetable will now be worked out for the redeployment of northern troops from the south, especially from Unity and Upper Nile states.
There will be more transparency on issues of oil management and marketing plus funding to pave the way for a census in 2011, when the south could decide to split from the north, has also been assured.
However, the final border demarcation was not resolved - which means the division of oil wealth cannot be completed.
It is the status of the disputed oil-rich region of Abyei - that currently lies in the north - that is the problem.
Mr Amum he did not see this as a major stumbling block.
"The issue of Abyei is being discussed by the presidency - we're hopeful that by Saturday there may be able to reach a solution."
The unity government will also set up a development commission to speed up road links between the more developed north and the south, which has little infrastructure after the long war.
Under the peace deal, the SPLM leader is also national vice-president.
Some 1.5 million people died in Sudan's conflict - Africa's longest civil war - which pitted the mainly Muslim north against the Animist and Christian south.
There are currently 10,000 UN peacekeepers in South Sudan.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ANC BANS 'DIVISIVE' POLL T-SHIRTS !

South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) has banned delegates from wearing T-shirts backing its rival leadership candidates to a key meeting.
This month's conference will decide who will lead the ANC going into 2009 national elections.
Ex-deputy President Jacob Zuma is ahead of President Thabo Mbeki in the race.
Pro-Zuma T-shirts like "Zuma For President" and "100% JZ" first surfaced during his 2006 rape trial, in which he was acquitted.
The BBC's Peter Greste in Johannesburg says the leadership contest has been a bitter fight between two political heavyweights for the job that will define the nation.
Mr Zuma is backed by those who want the government to do more to alleviate poverty and criticise Mr Mbeki for being too pro-business.
'100% Zuluboy'
The ANC's National Executive Council (NEC) said the ban was to stop the distribution of material "that is divisive or may promote factionalism".
Mr Mbeki has already served two terms as national president
"Conference participants may, therefore, not wear T-shirts or other clothing featuring any of the candidates for election to the NEC," it said in a statement.
"This prohibition includes official ANC T-shirts produced for past election campaigns."
In October, Defence Minister and ANC chairman Mosiuoa Lekota hit out at T-shirts with the slogan "100% Zuluboy", the nickname Mr Zuma was given after his fallout with Mr Mbeki.
Mr Lekota said the slogans were divisive and tribal.
After his sacking in 2005 on corruption allegations and during the rape trial, Mr Zuma's popularity among people in KwaZulu-Natal remained strong.
The corruption case against Mr Zuma collapsed but prosecutors say they may revive the charges.
He always said the cases against him were political.
On Tuesday, ANC Secretary-General Kgalema Motlanthe admitted there had been vote-buying during the leadership contest.
Mr Mbeki has already served two terms and cannot lead the country again, but if he remained ANC leader he would be in a good position to decide who succeeded him as national leader.
If Mr Zuma wins, he would be favourite to become South Africa's next president in 2009.
He has the support of five provinces as well as the ANC Women's League and Youth League.
Mr Mbeki has the support of four provincial branches.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZIMBABWE FARMER IN REGIONAL COURT !

The land reform programme has been accompanied by violence. A Zimbabwean farmer has asked a new southern African court to prevent his land being seized by the government.
The Southern African Development Community Tribunal was established last year, based in Namibia.
Michael Campbell wants it to overturn the seizure of his farm, saying it is an example of racial discrimination, which the Sadc treaty outlaws.
Most of Zimbabwe's 4,000 white farmers have been forced off their land since 2000 under a government programme.
President Robert Mugabe says the programme is to reverse imbalances in land ownership resulting from the colonial era.
His critics say it is a cynical ploy to buy votes by distributing land to his supporters, which has led to a collapse in Zimbabwe's agricultural production.
"If this application is successful, it will raise the matter to an entirely new level within Sadc, that will put the Zimbabwean government at odds with the other member countries," said Adrian de Bourbon, Mr Campbell's lawyer.
The tribunal said it would rule this week on whether it has jurisdiction to hear the case.
Mr de Bourbon said that Zimbabwe's government had changed the constitution, removing the right of appeal from farm-owners.
"This left us with no legal relief or remedy in Zimbabwe and we approached the Sadc tribunal."
Mr Campbell is one of 11 farmers from Chegutu, north-west of Harare, who faces criminal charges for refusing to leave his land, Mr de Bourbon told the AFP news agency.
The farmers could face up to two years in jail if found guilty, say reports.
AFP reports that the Sadc Tribunal was set up to ensure that member states respect the body's treaty, which includes human and property rights.
Zimbabwe's state-owned Herald newspaper reports that Mr Campbell has based his case on article 6 of the treaty, which outlaws discrimination against any person on the basis of gender, religion, race, ethnic origin and culture.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

RUSSIA TO LIMIT BRITISH COUNCIL !

President Putin has acted against the activities of foreign NGOs. The Russian government has ordered the British Council to close down its offices outside Moscow by the beginning of January.
The Russian foreign ministry said the council, which promotes British culture abroad, was operating illegally.
The council has said its operations in Russia are within the law.
A Russian official said the move was in retaliation for the expulsion of four Russian diplomats from the UK in July as part of a dispute.
Foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin also said the council had violated tax regulations.
But the council says it is fully compliant with all tax laws and operates on the basis of an agreement signed in the 1990s.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS" !

"HE IS RICH OR POOR ACCORDING TO WHAT HE IS,

NOT ACCORDING TO WHAT HE HAS" !

SUDAN REBELS 'ATTACK OIL FIELD' !

A Darfur rebel group says it has attacked and taken over a Chinese-run oil field in central Sudan. A Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) leader said it had defeated 1,200 government troops in Kordofan state. The Chinese embassy in Khartoum has confirmed there was fighting but denied a Chinese-run facility had been taken. Jem wants China to end its huge investment in Sudan, which the rebels say is giving the government the funds to buy weapons. "Our attack is another attempt at telling Chinese companies to leave the country," Jem commander Abdel Aziz Nur al-Ashr told the AFP news agency.

Who are Darfur's rebels?

"Our goal is for oil revenues to go back to the Sudanese people and that is a strategic plan of our movement," he said. Jem leader Khalil Ibrahim said a number of troops had been killed in the hour-long assault but would not give a figure. He also said that Jem fighters would be carrying out other attacks over the next few days.

No-one was available from the Sudanese government to comment on the attack. In October the rebels attacked another Chinese oil field and kidnapped five workers, who have since been released. China buys most of Sudan's oil. It has used its veto at the UN Security Council to block resolutions threatening sanctions on the Sudanese government.

The government denies charges that it backs the Janjaweed militias, accused of widespread atrocities against Darfur's black African residents. At least 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur's five-year conflict. Some 2.5 million have fled their homes.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

Q & A : EU-ACP TRADE DEAL !

It is crunch time as African, Caribbean and Pacific nations approach a deadline to negotiate a new trade deal with the EU. The new deal, and the worries of the EU former colonies, will be discussed at an EU-Africa summit this weekend.

What is the EU-ACP Economic Partnership Agreement?

Since the former European colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) were granted independence in the 1950s and 1960s, they have had special trade and aid deals with the European Union (EU).
These were designed to preserve many of the close relationships they previously enjoyed - such as access to European markets for their agricultural products - and provide aid to help the transition to independence.
Over the years, the EU has tried to change the character of these deals, moving on from a post-colonial relationship to what it calls an "economic partnership" with some of the world's poorest countries.

Why is there an urgent deadline to negotiate?

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled that the special trade preferences enjoyed by the ACP countries, on such items as exports of bananas, break world trade rules - after some countries, notably Ecuador, protested.
In 2000, the WTO gave the EU and the ACP countries seven years to find a new trade deal - and that exemption expires on 31 December 2007.
The EU wants to use the deadline to fundamentally renegotiate the character of its trade relationships with the ACP countries, demanding that they open their markets to EU goods and services in return for retaining access to EU markets.
However, only 14 ACP countries, out of the 78 former colonies, have agreed deals so far.

What are the concerns of ACP countries?

The ACP countries are worried that liberalising their economies too fast could hurt their domestic manufacturers and "infant" service industries who would be overwhelmed by the more sophisticated EU companies.
They also argue that the EU is trying to win by the back door concessions that were rejected in the Doha round of world trade negotiations - including a deal on investment, which was rejected by developing countries.
Already the EU has made concessions on whether the service sector, as opposed to manufacturing, will have to be fully liberalised.
And they say that they are prepared to give a long transition period, of five or 10 years, before countries fully have to comply with the new rules.

What does the EU hope to get out of the deal?

The EU is hoping that the deal will help build momentum for world trade liberalisation now that the Doha round of trade talks have stalled.
They are also hoping that it will boost exports by European countries, which will be hit by the economic slowdown in the US.
And the EU also wants to encourage investment in infrastructure and raw materials, particularly in Africa, that are important for its own industries, such as oil, copper, cocoa, and coffee.

What is likely to happen?

The EU holds enormous power in relation to its former colonies.
It is much richer than they are, and access to EU markets is crucial for many of the poorer nations' products.
So the betting is that, in the end, they will have to fall in line and agree the new trade deal.
It is significant that it is the biggest ACP countries, like South Africa and Nigeria, that have some economic power of their own, who are the ones holding out the longest against the deal.
However, the heavy-handed EU approach could lead to bitterness in future trade negotiations when these resume.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

INDIA BOYS 'SHOOT CLASSMATE DEAD' !

A schoolboy has been shot dead by two fellow students at a school campus near the Indian capital Delhi, police say.
The 14-year-old was killed instantly after being fired on at the private Euro International school in the suburb of Gurgaon, police said.
Gurgaon police commissioner Mahendra Lal told the BBC that two boys had been taken into custody.
Incidents of gun crime at schools and colleges in India are very rare. It is not clear what prompted the shooting.
Indian TV channels named the dead boy as Abhishek Tyagi.
Police say they believe one of the boys they are questioning managed to smuggle his father's gun into the school and hid it in a toilet.
After school closed for the day, the boy and one of his friends retrieved the gun and took turns to fire five shots at their classmate, killing him on the spot, Mr Lal told the BBC.
The dead boy was the son of a transporter and the two boys in detention are the sons of property dealers.
Mr Lal said police would be questioning the parents of one of the boys in custody about the gun.
"Those who are given an armed licence are required to ensure that the weapon is kept in a secure place away from innocent children."
Euro International school in question is located in sector 45 of Gurgaon, one of Delhi's booming satellite towns which is experiencing booming property and business expansion.
The school's website describes it as one of Gurgaon's top schools. It says it is a "state-of-the-art environment" and has CCTV cameras installed in all classrooms.
The school was not immediately available for comment.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

DOZENS KILLED IN ALGERIA BOMBINGS !

There are fears people are trapped in the debris.
Enlarge Image

At least 62 people have died in two bomb blasts in the Algerian capital, Algiers, officials have said. The first explosion happened in the Ben Aknoun district, near the supreme constitutional court. That was followed shortly afterwards by a second blast at the United Nations offices in the Hydra neighbourhood. A UN worker caught up in the Hydra attack told the BBC that a large part of the building was destroyed and it was feared people were trapped inside.

Map showing bomb blast locations

Dozens were wounded in the explosions, officials said. In the attack near the court, a bus packed with university students was passing by the vehicle containing the bomb when it exploded.

Witness: 'Everything fell'
In pictures: Algiers blasts

Security officials said the bus took the full force of the blast and was ripped apart, killing and injuring many of those on board. At the UN offices in Hydra, it was the UNDP building which bore the brunt of the blast. A residential building and the UNHCR headquarters across the road were also damaged, witnesses said.

Sophie Haspeslagh, who works for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), told the BBC that she was in a corridor when the blast occurred. "Everything shattered. Everything fell. I hid under a piece of furniture so I wouldn't be hit by the debris," she said. "I was holding my jacket on my face because I couldn't breathe."

Algerian Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni said the explosions had been caused by two car bombs, and that the one at the UN was triggered by a suicide bomber. A bus full of university students was ripped apart in the court bombingMs Haspeslagh said that one of her colleagues, who works in the UNHCR building across the street from the UNDP office, had seen a white van drive into the main UN offices, then explode.

There has been no immediate claim of responsibility. Throughout 2007 there have been a series of bomb attacks across Algeria in which scores of people have died. In September more than 50 people were killed in suicide attacks - one of them involved a truck packed with explosives being driven into a coast-guard base.

Al-Qaeda link?
Members of the public have recently held rallies in protest at the upsurge in violence.

VIOLENCE IN 2007

6 September: 22 die bombing in Batna claimed by al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb
8 September: 32 die in bombing in Dellys claimed by al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb
July: Suicide bomber targets barracks near Bouira killing nine
May: Dozens killed in run-up to elections, in fighting between military and militants
April: 33 killed in Algiers in attacks claimed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
March: Three Algerians and a Russian killed in attack on gas pipeline workers
February: Seven bombs kill six east of Algiers

Many of the recent blasts have been claimed by members of al-Qaeda's North Africa wing, calling themselves al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, including a triple suicide in Algiers in April which killed 33 people. The militant group was previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) but changed its name when it joined forces with al-Qaeda last year.

The BBC's regional analyst Roger Hardy says it is unclear how far the group really is linked to Osama Bin Laden's organisation and how far it is merely inspired by it. What is worrying Western experts and North African governments is the possibility that radical Islamists in the region no longer have a merely local agenda but are linked to a wider web of international networks.

Algeria suffered a brutal and bloody civil war in the 1990s, but in recent years violence had declined.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

LED ZEP'S SONG REMAINS THE SAME !

By Jon Kelly - BBC News at the Led Zeppelin show, London.

Concert highlights

We have been promised a spectacle. A bona fide, lighters-in-the-air, feet-on-the-monitors moment in rock history - with the amps, naturally, turned up to 11.
The fierce contest for seats has seen millions of fans scrambling for just 9,000 pairs of tickets. These musicians are living legends, we are reminded, giants of their genre, reuniting properly for the first time in nearly three decades.
So whether or not you like their music, it is just as well that the act charged with matching expectations is Led Zeppelin.
Of all the embodiments of rock 'n' roll over-indulgence, this band must surely be the most notorious. Trashed hotel rooms, pseudo-Satanism, epic binges and unspeakable acts involving groupies - it is a template that, 30 years after their heyday, still makes Pete Doherty look like Aled Jones.
But, as ever, the group's music outdoes the offstage antics in terms of excess.

As Robert Plant, 59, struts on stage for opener Good Times Bad Times - the singer's garments not quite hugging his figure with the same elan as in 1976 - it is clear that age has not wearied him.
He and his bandmates' brand of weighty, ponderous, steamrollering proto-metal - essentially, Queen without the sense of humour - set the standard for 70s stadium rock in all its bombast.
Their heyday overlapping with punk, it is easy to see why they regularly earned critical maulings. Zeppelin were cited as a key example of all that had become overblown and self-important about the genre.
A key inspiration for the 1984 rock satire This Is Spinal Tap, Zeppelin specialised in portentous, if vague, lyrics about grand, mystic themes.
But tonight, after all the hype that has led up to the event, you suspect anything less than the full 70s stadium rock treatment would be an anti-climax.
The extended instrumental workouts. Jimmy Page's double-necked axe being wheeled out for guitar shop favourite Stairway To Heaven. The lighting rig descending during No Quarter to emphasise the music's deeply celestial importantness.
The ecstatic crowd love it. There is a sense of genuine occasion. And little wonder.

This is a reunion in the truest sense of the word. Other alumni of the pop and rock canon who have reformed recently cashed in on the nostalgia market - the Spice Girls, Sex Pistols et al - have resembled little more than tribute acts to their younger selves.
But past reunions involving Page, Plant and bassist John Paul Jones have, by contrast, been low-key and rare. None have even come close to approaching tonight's scale.

The show was rescheduled after guitarist Jimmy Page fractured a finger.
"There's no-one comes close to what they do," says Tony Harper, 50, who has driven from Middlesbrough to be here. "They're still the business."
"I couldn't believe I landed a ticket," says Carole Smith, 41, from Plymouth. "And when they came on stage I had to keep reminding myself this was really happening."
The event - a tribute to the late Ahmet Ertegun, the founding chairman of Atlantic Records - suggests the band are motivated by more than just the prospect of swelling their already inflated bank accounts. It is, of course, a neat touch that percussion is tonight provided by Jason Bonham, son of original drummer John Bonham, who died in 1980.
The group are at their most successful when, on songs like Black Dog and In My Time of Dying, the sparse, taut blues needs no dramatic emphasis - and demonstrates Zeppelin's influence on the likes of the White Stripes' Jack White.
And when Page strikes up the riff to Kashmir (Duh-duh-duh! Duh-duh-duh!) you remember why this band have earned such a passionate following.
Perhaps because they have kept the comebacks to a minimum, Zeppelin carry their advanced years better than most groups of similar vintage.
Plant, at 59, now exudes an aura of gravitas that lends authority to the band's more extravagant moments.
And Page - Mephistophelean with his black frock coat and explosion of white hair - is an equally commanding presence, an incongruous gardening accident which forced the show to be rescheduled notwithstanding.
The erstwhile disciple of Aleister Crowley even looks - whisper it - as though he is enjoying himself.
Nearly 40 years may have passed since Led Zeppelin formed. But for fans and band alike, the song remains the same.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZUMA'S ANC BID GAINS KEY BACKER!

Jacob Zuma's campaign to become the leader of South Africa's governing African National Congress has been backed by powerbroker Tokyo Sexwale.
Mr Sexwale, who had been mooted as one of Mr Zuma's rivals, joined him on a public platform days before party delegates are to take a vote.
Mr Sexwale has now been nominated for the party's chairmanship.
He has denied local reports that he is funding the Zuma campaign against that of President Thabo Mbeki.
BBC Southern Africa correspondent Peter Biles says Mr Sexwale's support for Mr Zuma would be crucial.
Mr Sexwale turned up to support Mr Zuma at a public lecture at Johannesburg's Wits University to mark international human rights day.
The businessman brushed aside reporters' questions about divisions in the ANC although he acknowledged the race for the leadership was "robust" and "filled with tension".

JACOB ZUMA

Top figure in fight against apartheid
Seen as less business-friendly than Mbeki
Sacked as deputy president in 2005
Corruption trial stopped
Acquitted on rape charges

Zuma: Comeback kid

He told the BBC that no one person would pull the ANC in any direction as it was built around "strong collective leadership" and that this would pull the party back together.
The leadership contest will be decided at next week's ANC national conference at Polokwane.
Five provincial branches back Mr Zuma, as well as the Women's League and the Youth League.
Four branches back Mr Mbeki.
Our correspondent says that although Mr Zuma could potentially still face corruption charges, he now seems almost certain to win the ANC leadership - and that would make him favourite to become South Africa's next president in 2009.
Mr Mbeki is due to step down as national leader in two years, after serving two terms in office.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

MAN'S FOUR DAYS TRAPPED IN TOILET !

Mr Leggat was freed from the toilet thanks to a cleaner. A man spent four days trapped in a toilet after the door handle broke.
David Leggat, 55, was unable to raise the alarm after becoming stuck in the toilets at Kittybrewster and Woodside Bowling Club in Aberdeen.
Mr Leggat had no mobile phone or food, and used tap water for refreshment and for heat.
He was only released when cleaner Cathy Scollay arrived and heard his cries for help. She told BBC Scotland: "He said 'I have been locked in for four days'."
Mrs Scollay added: "I went in to work as normal and a voice shouted out. I could not take it in.
"The handle had broken. He was a bit shaky, and was as white as a sheet."
Mr Leggat was said to be none the worse, despite his ordeal.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS" !

"THE LESS PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT

HOW SAUSAGES AND LAWS ARE MADE,

THEY'LL SLEEP AT NIGHT" !

LIBYA'S COL GADDAFI VISITS FRANCE !

Colonel Gaddafi is expected to sign a number of trade deals with France. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has begun his first visit to France since 1973.
He will meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and is expected to sign a series of trade and military deals worth billions of dollars.
Col Gaddafi's five-day visit has drawn criticism from France's opposition socialists, as well as President Sarkozy's own human rights minister.
He was invited after Libya released medics who had been condemned to death, a case in which France mediated.
The five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor were accompanied home by Mr Sarkozy's ex-wife Cecilia in July.
Since then, the two countries have strengthened economic ties, and are thought likely to sign further deals.
Our country is not a doormat on which a leader can wipe off the blood of his crimes
Rama YadeFrench human rights ministerThese are expected to include Libya's purchase of Airbus planes, as well as a contract for France to build a nuclear reactor for civil use in Libya.
Mr Gaddafi also said that negotiations are under way for the purchase of Rafale fighter jets.
A series of arms and civilian nuclear deals were signed during a trip President Sarkozy made to Libya five months ago.
The French oil company Total has significant investments in the oil-rich North African country.
However, the visit has been strongly criticised by the French opposition.
Socialist leader Francois Hollande said Mr Sarkozy had invited "a head of state who justifies international terrorism".

Mr Sarkozy's then-wife brought foreign medics back from Libya.
Centrist politician Francois Bayrou said the visit was "shocking".
And Mr Sarkozy's junior minister for human rights, Rama Yade, said: "Col Gaddafi must understand that our country is not a doormat on which a leader - whether terrorist or not - can wipe off the blood of his crimes."
Libya ended decades of international isolation four years ago, when it gave up its pursuit of nuclear arms and pledged to renounce terrorism.
Libyan-French relations have overcome a few stumbling blocks in the past three decades, including the 1989 downing of a French airliner over Niger.
Libya accepted responsibility for that bombing and offered a compensation deal to the victims of the crash.
Col Gaddafi will travel with an entourage of 400 officials and is due to stay in a Bedouin tent in the grounds of the presidential palace in central Paris.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CHAD MOVES FORWARD ON KIDNAP CASE !

The children have been temporarily placed in a Chadian orphanage. Chad's legal authorities say 10 people - including six French nationals - will be tried in a criminal court over a bid to fly 103 children out of the country.
The French nationals will face charges of attempted kidnapping, forgery, and fraud. Three Chadians and one Sudanese refugee are accused of complicity.
Until now, the authorities had not said whether the 10 would face a criminal trial or be tried by a lower court.
All deny wrongdoing. They could face up to 20 years' hard labour if convicted.
The six members of the French charity Zoe's Ark say they were trying to help orphans from the Darfur conflict in Sudan.
The six - who are being held in the Chadian capital N'Djamena - have begun a hunger strike to protest against the conduct of the legal process, judicial sources say.
'Inhumane' operation
Meanwhile Chadian authorities also confirmed they had dismissed the case against 12 other suspects in the case - including French journalists and a Spanish air crew, who have already been allowed to leave Chad.
France has called on Chad to release the workers so they can be tried on French soil.
The aid workers were arrested in October in the eastern town of Abeche, for what officials say was an illegal attempt to fly 103 children to France.
Zoe's Ark has said it thought the children were orphans from the conflict-torn region of Darfur in neighbouring Sudan.
But international humanitarian organisations have said that almost all the children were from Chadian villages in the border area, and had at least one parent or adult guardian.
Chadian President Idriss Deby has described the operation as "inhumane", and said those responsible would be "severely punished".
The UN children's agency, Unicef, said the operation "took place in violation of international rules".
In August, the French authorities issued a warning about the activities of Zoe's Ark, saying there was no guarantee that the children whom the group wanted to transport were actually orphans.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

PROFILE: ARCHBISHOP JOHN SENTAMU !

The Archbishop of York has taken a pair of scissors to his dog collar, saying he will not replace it until Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe is out of office.
Dr John Sentamu said the president had taken people's identity and cut it to pieces, prompting him to do the same.
Britain's first black archbishop is no stranger to making such bold, defiant gestures.
In May last year, he wore a hoodie to a church conference to urge people not to judge teenagers by their choice of fashion.
And in 2004, as Bishop of Birmingham, he took the unusual step of advertising in the local press telling readers: "For God's Sake Birmingham, Use Your Vote!."
Three years later, he did the same before local elections in York, warning people against leaving the way open for politicians who offered "bile and discord".
Celebrity Big Brother
His plain speaking, energy and passion have won him friends in Downing Street and also made him a target for TV producers.
But offers to appear on reality show Celebrity Big Brother and panel shows including Have I Got News For You? were turned down. "We don't do celebrity," his spokesman said.

The Archbishop says 99% of hoodie-wearers are law-abiding.
John Tucker Mugabi Sentamu, 56, was born near Kampala, in Uganda, in 1949.
The sixth of 13 children, he was so small that the local bishop was called in to baptise him immediately.
But he survived his birth, a sickly childhood, and a famine.
He studied law at Makerere University and then worked as a barrister, before becoming a judge in the Uganda High Court.
In 1974, his criticism of the Amin regime for its human rights violations led to his arrest and departure from Uganda for the UK.

Route to faith.
He studied theology at Cambridge with a view to returning home after his studies.
But when his friend, the Ugandan Archbishop Janani Luwum, was murdered he vowed to take his place, and was ordained in 1979.
Archbishop Sentamu, who has two grown-up children with wife Margaret, served in parishes in Cambridge and London.
During his 13 years as vicar of Holy Trinity Church, in Tulse Hill, south London, he raised £1.6m to restore the church and its organ, and increased the congregation tenfold.
From 1986 to 1992 he served on the Archbishop's Commission for Urban Priority Areas and he was chairman of the Committee for Minority Ethnic Anglican Concerns between 1990 and 1999.
In London, he had special responsibility for evangelism, minority ethnic Anglican concerns, police and community relations, and social justice.
As Bishop of Birmingham (Bishop for Birmingham as he was often called), he was one of only two senior UK Anglican bishops from ethnic minorities, alongside Bishop of Rochester the Rt Rev Dr Michael Nazir-Ali.
Archbishop Sentamu was an adviser to the inquiry into the Stephen Lawrence murder, and chaired the inquiry which criticised police methods following the stabbing of Damilola Taylor.
He has often attacked the Church of England for being institutionally racist.
But he has also played down his reputation as an anti-racist campaigner, saying: "Yes definitely I am black but what is important is that I have got a living faith in God.
"I would like people to share my life, my faith, my hope.
"That, to me, is the most important."
He has indicated that he would be happy to ordain women bishops if the Church was to change its rules, and has also criticised the way some members of the Church have spoken about gay people.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

TOUGH ISSUES DOG AMBITIOUS SUMMIT!

By Mark Doyle - BBC News, Lisbon.

The row over Mr Mugabe followed a familiar pattern. The sun shone through bright December days on the Summit venue next to the Lisbon waterfront.
The phones worked, and the food supplied by the Portuguese hosts was decent and plentiful.
The security was annoying - as security always is for journalists who like to move around freely - but it wasn't oppressive.
I even had reliable sources inside the closed-door sessions.
It was a perfectly organised summit.
But what the Portuguese organisers couldn't control was the presence of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

It's become a bit of a pattern. It goes something like this.
Africa, sensitive about its colonial past, insists that Europe can't dictate that Robert Mugabe, a one-time liberation hero, shouldn't attend an international meeting.
So Mr Mugabe turns up, the Europeans duly criticise him - and then he attacks them right back for being neo-colonialists.
This time he said, at a closed session of European and African leaders, that it was Africans who brought democracy to Africa - one man, one vote - not the colonial powers.
That's right, of course - except Mr Mugabe forgot to mention the bit where the Zimbabwean opposition and international observers said he had rigged elections.
The issue of Robert Mugabe's presence almost overshadowed the first Summit of African and European leaders for seven years.
The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown boycotted the meeting because of the Zimbabwean's presence - leaving it to the European Union to criticise Mr Mugabe's record on human rights and economic management.
So the Zimbabwean leader denounced Germany and other west European nations for being the "megaphones" of Britain.

That spat over, the summit ended with a commitment to a joint European and African action plan which is hugely ambitious in scope. It covers ideas for ending armed conflict, increasing trade and respecting human rights.
But there are massive challenges in all these areas.
On the issue of peace, planned peacekeeping operations in Chad, Sudan and Somalia are behind schedule.
Mr Konare said Africa had to tackle its own governance problems. On trade, Africa has largely rejected European plans for more reductions in import taxes because it fears powerful Europe could flood Africa with industrial goods which could damage fragile African industries.
And on human rights, there was open conflict here between Europe and the President of Zimbabwe.
What most of the "Action Plan" of the adopted "EU-Africa Strategic Partnership" boils down to is better government in Africa.
The current President of the African Union, the democratically-elected President of Ghana John Kufuor, didn't skirt the issue:
"We're not saying there's perfection on the continent on Africa. I don't think even in Europe there is perfection in this regard", said the Ghanaian leader.
"But the point is that with good governance we will attract the partnerships for development that we need.
"Investors would not come if they see impunity all over the place, if they see disregard of humanity all over the place, if they see human resources not being developed - because in that case, if you put your money there, the money will not grow. Africa knows this."
The president of the European Commission, Europe's top civil servant Jose Manuel Barroso, agreed that Africa was moving forward:
"Contrary to what is often said in Europe there is good reason for optimism about what's going on in Africa", said Mr Barroso.
Senegal's president led the rejection of proposed trade plans"Governance is improving and many more countries in Africa now have democratic elections.
"There is indeed progress in this area. Of course we know there are still problems, and we have addressed those problems in a very open and frank manner."
But Mr Barroso couldn't resist another barely concealed jab at Mr Mugabe:
"We cannot understand that those who once fought for the freedom of their country now deny that freedom to their citizens."
One of the frankest comments came from the President of the African Union Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare:
"Let's be honest", Mr Konare said, "there are problems of governance.
"But Africans themselves have to sort these out, to tackle them head on. Otherwise we won't be able to get beyond our difficulties".

The Summit ended, as do most meetings of this sort, with smiling photocalls.
The Portuguese Prime Minister, Jose Socrates, gave an extraordinary closing speech which spoke about bridges being built, steps forward being taken, and visions being pursued.
He went off on such an oratorical flight, in fact, that I became mesmerised by the beauty of the Portuguese language and the elegance of his delivery.
I was so bewitched that I didn't register any concrete points in the speech at all.
Perhaps there weren't any. But it certainly sounded good.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

THE WORLD THIS WEEK !

A look at what could be dominating the headlines around the world this week - and some key background on those events.

MONDAY 10 DECEMBER
LOOK OUT FOR

In-depth coverage of the climate change conference including:
Chris Hogg on energy-efficient Japan
David Shukman in Borneo on protecting forests
A series of features exploring the theme of freedom of speech to coincide with 75 years of the BBC World Service
75 years of the World Service

Cristina comes to power: Newly-elected Argentine President Cristina Kirchner is formally sworn in Buenos Aires at the start of a four-year term.
Kirchner's policies remain mystery

Power on trial: The trial of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is due to begin in Lima. Mr Fujimori is charged with human rights violations and corruption.
Profile: Alberto Fujimori

Mr Fujimori led Peru during the 1990sRighting wrongs: Monday marks the International Day of Human Rights. The UN rights body, the Human Rights Council is due to meet in Geneva.
Human rights 'eroded worldwide'

Fallen mogul: Conrad Black, the Canadian media baron convicted of fraud, is to be sentenced in Chicago. Prosecutors are seeking a prison term of up to 25 years. Black is planning to appeal against the conviction.
The fall of Conrad Black

TUESDAY 11 DECEMBER

Happy Birthday Kyoto: Tuesday marks the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol, which sets targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Q&A: The Kyoto Protocol

Symbolic service: A regular freight train service between South and North Korea is due to make a journey across the border, the first for more than half a century.
Koreas agree train service

WEDNESDAY 12 DECEMBER

Paralysis: A general strike across Greece is planned in protest at the government's controversial plans to reform pensions.
Greek strike over spending cuts

Retreating glaciers are a sign of global warming
Blue planet: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is due to attend the international climate change talks on global warming in Bali, Indonesia. Governments are discussing whether a further set of binding targets to cut emissions is needed.
Key summit opens in Bali.

Dubai trial: A verdict is expected in the trial of two Emiratis accused of raping a 15-year-old French-Swiss boy.
Emiratis tried for raping youth

Diva's dresses: Personal objects belonging to Greek-American opera diva Maria Callas, including ball gowns and love letters are to go under the hammer at an auction house in Milan.
BBC Four: Callas documentary

THURSDAY 13 DECEMBER

New treaty: European Union member states are to sign the Lisbon Treaty, an agreement which replaces the draft constitution, jettisoned after France and the Netherlands voted against it in referendums in 2005.
Q&A: The Lisbon Treaty

Carla farewell: Chief UN War Crimes Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte steps down from a role she has held since 1999. Famed for her ruthlessness, she has led tribunals over war crimes carried out both in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Profile: Carla Del Ponte

FRIDAY 14 DECEMBER

Climate conclusions: The UN climate change conference ends in Bali, Indonesia with the adoption of a statement by member states.
Animated guide to climate change

Extraordinary congress: The final day of a special meeting of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party is expected to confirm incumbent President Robert Mugabe as the candidate in the 2008 presidential elections.
Mugabe hails Zimbabwe 'new dawn'

SATURDAY 15 DECEMBER

Choosing a candidate: Russia's Communist Party holds a congress in the capital, Moscow, to choose a presidential candidate for the forthcoming March election.
Russia's Ivanov steps out of shadows

SUNDAY 16 DECEMBER

Michelle Bachelet is the first woman to hold the presidency in Chile. South to south: Chile's President Michelle Bachelet is to travel to Bolivia to meet both the country's President Evo Morales and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Country profile: Bolivia

New leadership: South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC) is due to choose a new head. President Thabo Mbeki is seeking re-election as party president but is being challenged for the role by deputy president Jacob Zuma.
Crucial year for ANC
BBC NEWS REPORT.

'MISSING' CANOEIST DUE IN COURT!

A 57-year-old man who turned up alive five years after being presumed dead in a canoeing accident is due in court.
John Darwin is due before Hartlepool magistrates accused of obtaining life insurance cash by deception and making an untrue statement to get a passport.
It comes as police prepare to question Mr Darwin's wife, Anne, 55, who was arrested on suspicion of fraud after returning to the UK on Sunday.
She recently moved to Panama after selling the couple's Teesside home.
Mrs Darwin, who was arrested at Manchester Airport, was taken to Hartlepool police station, where she was to undergo a medical examination before being questioned by detectives.
Her detention followed the arrest of Mr Darwin, 57, at his son's house in Basingstoke, Hampshire, on Tuesday on suspicion of fraud.

It had been thought the former prison officer had died at sea after the remains of his canoe were found on a beach in Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool, Teesside, in March 2002.
But he turned up at a north London police station last weekend, claiming he could not remember what had happened to him.
Police said an application would be made to keep him in custody.

Police were waiting to arrest Anne Darwin at Manchester Airport.
After Mr Darwin turned up in London it emerged Mrs Darwin had recently moved to Panama, having sold the family home in Seaton Carew.
A photograph then surfaced showing her alongside her husband in Panama last year. It has yet to be independently verified.
Detectives had issued appeals for Mrs Darwin to get in touch with them.
Now they will be able to question her about details of interviews she has given to newspaper journalists.
Speaking before Mrs Darwin's return to Britain, Det Sgt Iain Henderson of Cleveland Police said he could not say whether further charges would be brought in the case.
He was also unable to say whether the investigation would be extended to include other members of the Darwin family.
The couple's sons, Anthony and Mark, previously released a statement saying they had been through a "rollercoaster of emotions" after finding out their father was alive.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

10 THINGS !

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

1. To be declared dead there is no time limit - the seven-year rule only applies in the High Court on the settlement of a disputed estate.
More details

2. No Briton has been extradited from Panama since an extradition treaty was signed 100 years ago.More details

3. JE55USS - and other combinations of letters and numbers with strong religious connotations - cannot be used for personalised number plates. Rude words are also banned.
More details

4. There are fewer than 50 wild animals performing in UK-owned circuses.
More details

5. Two-thirds of Ricky Hatton's calorie intake when training for a big fight - and trying to lose excess weight he piles on between bouts - is from meal replacement supplements.
More details

6. India's "hugging saint" has dispensed 26 million cuddles - her helpers count each off with a clicker.
More details

7. Books used to be bound in human skin.
More details

8. Santa Claus, for Dutch and Belgian children, lives in Spain and travels north by steam ship.
More details

9. One in four children don't count their father as immediate family.
More details

10. Tango routes are longer routes flown by some airlines to by-pass the expense of flying through several air traffic zones.
More details

BBC MAGAZINE.

Cathy Buckle's Weekly Letter From Zimbabwe !

Flame Lillies and Quadrillions!

Saturday 8th December 2007.
Dear Family and Friends,

It was a rare occasion this week when the electricity happened to come back on at the same time as the main 8 pm evening news on ZBC TV. Normally at this time of the evening the power still hasn't come back on and we are grinding into the 15th or 16th hour of the day without electricity. The headline story and accompanying film clip on the local news was of President Mugabe and his wife at Harare airport preparing to depart for the EU Africa Summit in Portugal. Ministers, security personnel and VIP's were lined up on the tarmac and formed a corridor of smiles and hand shakes and inaudible little comments.

In the same week as our leader and his wife and the official delegation were heading for Europe, Air Zimbabwe announced that one return air fare from Harare to London had increased to 804 million Zimbabwe dollars. To put that price into context is the recently publicised information by the Teachers Union saying that government school teachers presently earn an average salary of just 17 million Zimbabwe dollars a month.

The same week that our President flew to Lisbon, a couple of South African visitors invited me to tea at a local restaurant. I queued at my local bank but was again limited to how much of my own money I could withdraw and was allowed to take just five million dollars. Immediately I spent three million dollars buying one light bulb and one jar of peanut butter and so with just two million dollars left, I hoped I wasn't paying for tea. At the restaurant three cups of tea, one waffle and one toasted sandwich were ordered. The bill came to 7.2 million dollars.

Back in Portugal President Mugabe and his wife didn't have any waiting around when they landed. They were ringed by security men and hurried out of sight to their hotel. Meanwhile at home in Zimbabwe at least three hundred people stood patiently in a winding line to buy milk from a bulk tanker. Outside the banks the queues went into multiple hundreds and outside a virtually empty supermarket an enormous crowd, uncountable in size, pushed and jostled for a chance to buy a bag of maize meal. The day before a similar desperate queue had resulted in riot police, baton sticks to control the crowd and injuries.

This week as our President and his wife dine with 80 other world leaders in Portugal there are still no staple foods to buy in Zimbabwe's shops. Our schools have just broken up for the Christmas holidays and the search for food and lines to withdraw pathetically small amounts of our own money from the banks are getting longer and more desperate by the day. Roadside vendors are selling pockets of potatoes for 11 million dollars; if you can afford them, it means a gruelling three days of queuing at the bank just to put potatoes on the dinner plate. If you are a government school teacher, they will cost three quarters of your entire monthly salary. To put these figures into perspective, or perhaps not, this week the Minister of Finance presented a 7,8 quadrillion dollar budget for the coming year. None of us have worked out how many zeroes this is yet and calculators can't help either. Zimbabweans are facing an extremely hard Christmas this year but as always we look for hope. Many events are drawing closer and all hold the opportunity to bring relief to a battered and beaten country. The summit in Portugal will be followed soon after by the Zanu PF Annual Congress, then the result of talks in South Africa, then the MDC Annual Congress and then, in March next year, Parliamentary and Presidential elections.

I will be taking a short break to draw strength and calculate the quadrillions but wish all Zimbabweans, friends and supporters of the country a peaceful and Happy Christmas. I saw the first crimson Flame Lily of the season in the grass on the roadside this week and it heralds the end of another year and the start of what must surely be a better time for us all.

Until my next letter in the New Year,
with love, cathy.

PROFILE : JAMES MURDOCH !

By Will Smale - Business reporter, BBC News

James Murdoch's time at Sky echoed his father's toughness.
The media king is not getting any younger, all hail his heir apparent.
James Murdoch, the youngest son of Rupert Murdoch, has been promoted to a senior position at his father's media giant News Corporation.
The announcement has again increased speculation that James, 34, is being groomed to succeed his 76-year-old dad in the top job.
But unlike four years ago, when James' appointment as chief executive of News Corporation's BSkyB satellite television unit sparked a mass of nepotism allegations, this time his promotion has been widely welcomed by commentators.
The key difference is that back in 2003 James was said to be too inexperienced for the top Sky position, he is now widely accepted to have done a very good job during his tenure at the broadcaster.
Especially as his hardball management decisions have more than echoed Rupert's own famously ruthless business streak.
As James now prepares to take control of News Corporation's operations in the UK, Europe and Asia, he can look back on successfully expanding BSkyB into broadband internet and telephone services, and continuing to grow its TV subscriber base.

However, far more interesting has been James' battles with UK cable TV rival Virgin Media.
When Virgin Media, then still called NTL, announced in November of last year that it was interested in merging with ITV, Britain's main commercial television station, James pounced to block any deal.
Writing a cheque for £940m ($1.9bn), BSkyB bought a 17.9% stake in ITV just over a week later.
Giving it effective shareholder weight to block Virgin's plans, BBC business editor Robert Peston described it at the time as "an astonishing spoiling tactic".
Virgin was understandably rather aggrieved and complained to UK media regulator Ofcom.
The Office of Fair Trading also launched an investigation, handing its findings over to the Competition Commission, which has the power of censure.
The Competition Commission said in its provisional ruling in October that BSkyB's stake in ITV did restrict competition.
A final decision on what action to take will be made by Secretary of State for Business, John Hutton.
This is grooming James for a larger role longer term at News Corp
Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield
He could call for BSkyB to be forced to sell its stake, or alternatively allow it to keep the holding, but be barred from having any voting rights.
Whatever the penalty, BSkyB is likely to consider it a price well worth paying for blocking ITV's merger with Virgin.
James has also fought tough with Virgin over how much the latter must pay to broadcast Sky channels.
With this dispute still rumbling after Virgin refused to meet BSkyB's higher prices, Virgin's viewers have since March not been able to access channels such as Sky One or Sky Sports News.
We can only assume that Murdoch senior wants more of the same from James at the News Corporation top table.
"This is grooming James for a larger role longer term at News Corp," said Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield.
"He has proved himself beyond a doubt over the last several years at BSkyB."

Born in 1972, James is the youngest of Rupert Murdoch's three adult children from his first marriage, the others being sister Elisabeth and brother Lachlan.
James is seen as the front runner to take over as he is now the only one of the three children still working for News Corporation.
Schooled in New York, James studied film and history at Harvard University, but dropped out in the mid-1990s without completing his degree.
Gaining a reputation as the family rebel, he then set up an independent record company, Rawkus Records, which was eventually bought by News Corporation.
In 1996, he was then appointed chairman of another News Corporation music label, Australia-based Festival Records, also going on to take charge of the company's fledgling internet operations.
Four years later, James was appointed chairman and chief executive of News Corporation's Asian satellite service, Star Television.
He remained there for three years before taking up the top job at BSkyB in 2003, where he became at 30-years-old the youngest ever boss of a FTSE-100 listed company.
"James is a talented and proven executive," said Rupert on Friday.
"He has transformed Sky."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

EU INCREASES PRESSURE ON ZIMBABWE!

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken out against oppression in Zimbabwe, at a meeting of European and African leaders being held in Portugal.
She condemned the policies of President Robert Mugabe as "damaging the image of new Africa", sources inside the closed session in Lisbon said.
With Mr Mugabe in the audience, she said she stood with Zimbabwe's people.
Earlier, Portuguese PM Jose Socrates described the gathering - the first for seven years - as a "summit of equals".

Mugabe 'new era' dismissed
EU-Africa: Key issues

However, Mr Socrates, who is hosting the meeting of nearly 70 EU and African leaders, said there would be no shying away from thorny issues such as human rights.
Other key topics include trade, immigration, the environment, and peace and security.
"This summit is a summit of equals," he said. "We are equal in our human dignity... but also equal in terms of political responsibility," he said in an opening speech.
He acknowledged that Zimbabwe was a sticking point, but said dialogue would bring results.
Previous efforts to hold EU-African summits have collapsed over the question of Mr Mugabe's attendance.
Although banned from the EU, African leaders demanded that Mr Mugabe be invited to attend. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has boycotted the meeting in protest.

Mrs Merkel has been tasked with expressing the EU's concerns about the situation in Zimbabwe, where Mr Mugabe is accused of economic mismanagement, failure to curb corruption and contempt for democracy.

There is a growing belief that Europe-Africa relations are changing"The situation in Zimbabwe concerns us all, in Europe as in Africa," she said. "We don't have the right to look away when human rights are trampled on."
The EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso also criticised the way President Mugabe was treating the people of Zimbabwe.
"Frankly we hope that those who have fought for the independence and freedom of their countries now can also accept the freedom for their own citizens," he said.
Mr Mugabe, who is still regarded by many African leaders as the heroic liberator of Zimbabwe, has not yet responded publicly to the remarks.
Ghanaian President John Kufuor, who is also president of the African Union, said it was time to shake off the colonial past.
"For almost 500 years, the relationship between our two continents had not been a happy one. It is to correct this historic injustice and inhumanity that this new relationship between Africa and the European Union is now necessary," he said.
Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy met his Rwandan counterpart to "start to normalise" ties, which were severed last year in a row over a French inquiry into events that led to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
"We want to turn the page, we want to look to the future," said Mr Sarkozy following talks with President Paul Kagame.

The BBC's Mark Doyle in Lisbon says there is an emerging realisation in Europe that its relationship with Africa is changing.
Poverty and issues around development aid are still dominant, but at the same time many countries in Africa are now democracies with growing economies and growing self-confidence, our correspondent says.

Africa wary of trade offer
Q&A: Trade deal

African trade with China is forcing Europe to take Africa more seriously and not just as a collection of former colonial possessions, he adds.
The EU is hoping to draw up a number of new Economic Partnership Agreements with former African colonies and regional blocs. The World Trade Organization wants the current preferential trade deals to expire at the end of the year.
African representatives are concerned that the new agreements are unbalanced and that their countries will not be able to compete with subsidised European goods.
Some states, though, in East Africa, have already signed up to the new deals.
European countries are mindful of protecting their position in Africa amid rising competition from China, correspondents say.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ODINGA: KENYA'S KING-MAKER !

By Noel Mwakugu - BBC News, Nairobi.

Raila Odinga is described by both friends and foes as the engine that drives opposition politics in Kenya. Opposition leader Raila Odinga has long eyed the top job.
And when the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) elected him as their flag-bearer for the 27 December elections, analysts predicted that the king-maker could now be set to become king.
During his long political career, he has been in and out of a veritable alphabet soup of political parties.
His critics call him a "party-wrecker", who will do anything to achieve his political ambition.
In fact he heads just one faction of the ODM, which in the ever-fractured world of Kenya's ethnic politics found itself splintered along the lines of support for Mr Odinga (a Luo from Nyanza province) and Kalonzo Musyoka (a Kamba from Eastern province).
They are both challenging incumbent Mwai Kibaki (a Kikuyu from Central province) for the presidency.
It is Mr Odinga's second attempt to gain the top job.
He ran for office against former President Daniel arap Moi in 1997, coming third behind Mwai Kibaki, the man who went on to win the last election and who now, mysteriously, has secured the support of his former arch-enemy Mr Moi along with the Kikuyu vote of what is known as the "Mount Kenya mafia".
Although he trailed in third, that 1997 run secured for Mr Odinga a national profile from which to launch his future presidential bid.

Mr Odinga is the son of Kenya's first post-independence vice-president, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, who split with Kenya African National Unity (Kanu) founding father Jomo Kenyatta in 1966.
Raila, a mechanical engineer by profession, was accused of plotting a coup against President Moi in 1982, charged with treason and detained without trial for six years before fleeing to Norway in 1991.
But he returned the following year to join his father's new party, the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (Ford).
On Jaramogi Odinga's death, Raila challenged Michael Wamalwa Kijana for the leadership of Ford-Kenya and lost, so left to join the National Development Party (NDP).
After the 1997 elections he merged his NDP with Kanu but was passed over for the Kanu leadership and formed the Rainbow Movement in protest.
The Rainbow Movement went on to join the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and then to form the ODM.
Raila Odinga has a powerful grassroots organisation that can muster half a million votes in Luo Nyanza and an estimated 200,000 votes in parts of Western province.

PROFILE

Kibaki: Dream or nightmare?

With this kind of political clout - and a forceful personality to match - he has been able to influence the political agenda.
He has what some describe as a daredevil character, that is the boldness both to challenge and openly criticise his opponents, a trait which has won him friends and enemies in equal measure.
To his supporters he is known affectionately as Agwambo [mysterious in his Dholuo language], and budding politicians from Nyanza have often sought his blessing to launch their careers, feeling that without his nod, they would be bound to fail.
In 2002, Mr Moi reached out to him as he sought to repair his dented political image.
Mr Odinga disbanded the NDP and regrouped his political forces in Mr Moi's Kanu, becoming the party's secretary general as part of the deal.
Political analysts at the time predicted that there would be a further falling out between the seasoned duo and it came in 2002, when Mr Moi hand-picked Uhuru Kenyatta to succeed him as Kanu's presidential candidate, in defiance of calls for a ballot.

Mr Odinga is described by some as a daredevil. Mr Odinga duly walked out, along with key ministers from Mr Moi's government to form the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) party which brought Mr Kibaki to power.
He was seen as instrumental in President Kibaki's victory despite the serious injury he incurred in a pre-election accident.
"The captain is injured but the struggle continues," Mr Odinga declared and Kenyans for the first time voted for an opposition candidate en masse.
But he soon fell out with his new ally and launched the ODM in opposition to Mr Kibaki's government to campaign for a No vote in the 2005 constitutional referendum.
Mr Odinga accused Mr Kibaki of being insincere and failing to live up to his promises to tackle corruption, and now hopes to unseat him.
Diehard supporters of this East German-trained mechanical engineer believe he could be the right person to deliver the much-wanted changes to Kenyan politics: to put an end to tribalism, nepotism and corruption and bring Kenya into the modern age.
As a prominent and successful businessman (he runs the engineering firm Spectra International) he is experienced in global corporate practices and says he intends to inject this knowledge into his administration to reconstruct Kenya's economy.
His supporters say Mr Odinga is fearless and can be the hands-on president Kenya needs to mend the decades of misrule.
But his detractors say he is a dictator in the making, who will shove aside anyone who does not toe the line.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

SANTA'S BEST LOCATION : KYRGYZSTAN !

Santa Claus should leave the North Pole and relocate to Kyrgyzstan to optimise the delivery of Christmas presents, a Swedish engineering firm says.
The Sweco consulting firm found Kyrgyzstan was the most logical base to avoid time-wasting detours.
It took into account main population centres and the Earth's rotation.
Santa would have 34 microseconds for each chimney stop, and his reindeer would have to travel at nearly 6,000km (3,700 miles) per second.
The company insisted that helping Santa deliver presents to 2.5bn households worldwide was a serious exercise.
"Identifying Santa's optimal Christmas route is not just something we do for fun. Sweco uses the same technique when carrying out assignments on behalf of our clients," a statement on the company's website said.
Sweco revealed the precise location where Santa should live - Latitude, (N) 40.40, Longitude, (E) 74.24.
"Santa Claus' starting point lies 35km (22 miles) north of Kapkatash and 13km (8 miles) north of Camp Snerif, both in Kyrgyzstan," Sweco concludes.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

JOCKEYS ACQUITTED OF RACE-FIXING!

Former champion jockey Kieren Fallon, two other riders and three other people have been cleared of race-fixing.
The judge at the Old Bailey directed the jury to find the defendants not guilty of conspiracy to defraud customers of betting exchange Betfair.
The jockeys had denied trying to make horses lose in 27 races between December 2002 to August 2004.
South Yorkshire businessman Miles Rodgers was acquitted of concealing the proceeds of crime.
Mr Rodgers, who the prosecution had claimed was the head of the conspiracy, insisted throughout he had done nothing illegal.

NOT GUILTY

Kieren Fallon, 42, from Tipperary, Irish Republic
Fergal Lynch, 29, from Boroughbridge, N Yorkshire
Darren Williams, 29, from Leyburn, N Yorkshire
Shaun Lynch, 37, from Londonderry, N Ireland
Miles Rodgers, 38, from Silkstone, S Yorkshire
Philip Sherkle, 42, from Tamworth, Staffs

The 27 races in question

John Kelsey-Fry QC, representing Mr Fallon, had said the allegations were "absurd" and there was not a shred of evidence his client had tried to lose any of the races in question.
He said the police had not been objective and had buried a key piece of evidence which pointed towards the defendants' innocence.
At the start of the trial Jonathan Caplan QC, prosecuting, had claimed the conspiracy was a serious fraud which "undermines the integrity of the sport".
He claimed Mr Rodgers had laid bets totalling £2.2m on a series of horses in the expectation that the jockeys would connive in losing them.
But the jury heard Mr Fallon won in five of the 17 races he was alleged to have been trying to lose. Mr Kelsey-Fry said that was actually higher than his average strike rate.
The Crown's star witness, Australian racing expert Ray Murrihy, who found fault with the jockeys in 13 of the 27 races, was also forced to admit he knew little about the rules and culture of British racing.

The jury also heard that police had not disclosed to the defence a crucial interview with British racing expert Jim McGrath in March 2006.
Mr McGrath, the managing director of Timeform and presenter of Channel 4's Morning Line programme, had seen very little he found suspicious with the jockeys' performances but his favourable remarks were not disclosed to the defence until the trial had begun.
The detective in charge of the case, Acting Detective Inspector Mark Manning, admitted that was an "unfortunate" mistake.
But he denied claims by the defence that he was not impartial.
Mr Manning, who was due to retire during the trial, admitted he had been offered a job with the British Horseracing Authority, the body that regulates racing.
The defendants denied any wrongdoing and said they were simply passing on tips or betting information.
Mr Fallon, who denied knowing Mr Rodgers, pointed out he exchanged tips with all sorts of people and the trial heard he regularly exchanged texts with Newcastle and England football star Michael Owen, who is a big racing fan.
Mr Fallon has won six champion jockey titles in the UK and won France's biggest races, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, on the eve of the trial opening.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS" !

"IT IS MUCH EASIER TO TURN A FRIENDSHIP INTO LOVE,

THAN IT IS TO TURN LOVE INTO A FRIENDSHIP" !

HINDU GODS GET SUMMONS FROM COURT!

By Amarnath Tewary Patna

A judge in India has summoned two Hindu gods, Ram and Hanuman, to help resolve a property dispute.
Judge Sunil Kumar Singh in the eastern state of Jharkhand has issued adverts in newspapers asking the gods to "appear before the court personally".
The gods have been asked to appear before the court on Tuesday, after the judge said that letters addressed to them had gone unanswered.
Ram and Hanuman are among the most popular Indian Hindu gods.
Judge Singh presides in a "fast track" court - designed to resolve disputes quickly - in the city of Dhanbad.
The dispute is now 20 years old and revolves around the ownership of a 1.4 acre plot of land housing two temples.
You failed to appear in the court despite notices sent by a peon and post
Judge Sunil Kumar Singh in letter to Lord Ram and Hanuman
The deities of Ram and Hanuman, the monkey god, are worshipped at the two temples on the land.
Temple priest Manmohan Patnaik claims the land belongs to him. Locals say it belongs to the two deities.
The two sides first went to court in 1987.
A few years ago, the dispute was settled in favour of the locals. Then Mr Patnaik challenged the verdict in a fast track court.

Judge Singh sent out two notices to the deities, but they were returned as the addresses were found to be "incomplete".
This prompted him to put out adverts in local newspapers summoning the gods.
"You failed to appear in court despite notices sent by a peon and later through registered post. You are herby directed to appear before the court personally", Judge Singh's notice said.
The two Hindu gods have been summoned as the defence claimed that they were owners of the disputed land.
"Since the land has been donated to the gods, it is necessary to make them a party to the case," local lawyer Bijan Rawani said.
Mr Patnaik said the land was given to his grandfather by a former local king.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

105 DIE IN CHINA MINE EXPLOSION!

Chinese officials say 105 miners are now known to have died in an explosion in a coal mine in Shanxi province in northern China on Thursday.
State media says the managers of the mine have been arrested for causing the accident by mining a coal seam that had not been authorised for production.
They also allegedly delayed reporting the accident for six hours while conducting their own rescue operation.
China's coal mines are among the most dangerous in the world.
The underground blast occurred at the Rui Zhiyuan mine in Shanxi province's Linfen city, state-run news agency Xinhua said. It is not clear what caused it.
Xinhua said rescue workers believed managers at the mine had tried to launch a rescue operation by themselves, "which magnified the number of casualties".

The facts of this latest mine disaster are grimly familiar, says the BBC correspondent in Shanghai, Quentin Somerville.
China - and perhaps the rest of the world - is growing used to this loss of life.
An average of 13 miners are killed every single day down the pits. In August, 181 miners were killed when floodwater poured into a mine in Shandong province in the east of the country.
Rising demand for energy and fuel means that owners and local officials often ignore safety issues in pursuit of profits.
The government has launched an ongoing safety campaign, and keeps calling for more to be done.
Officials warned recently that as mines increased output to meet increasing winter demand, accidents were even more likely to happen in the next few months.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

A WEEK IN ZIMBABWE -(if you can manage to read it).

T-bone steaks and cricket, starvation and poverty!

DIARY OF A SURREAL WEEK IN ZIMBABWE.

Written by Martin Fletcher.

Thursday, November 15

From the air you see thousands of acres of abandoned farmland reverting to nature. Our Air Zimbabwe flight lands in Harare at 9.30am, the only plane at a shiny new airport built in 2001 for non-existent tourists.
Foreign journalists face imprisonment if caught here. Heart thumping, I approach the visa desk with a passport full of stamps for places like Iraq and Somalia. If asked, I will claim to be an academic specialising in conflict resolution. Happily, I am waved through. This may be a brutal police state, but it is an incompetent one.
Surprisingly, you can still rent cars. Maps of Harare are unobtainable, however, as there is no paper left to print them on. I rely on memory to find the safe suburban guest house where I plan to stay, the capital's hotels being infested with government informers. I arrive to find it has no electricity and not a drop of water.

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I also need cash, but it is in desperately short supply. The Government cannot print enough to cope with inflation. Banks offer only the official rate of Z$30,000 per US dollar. A friend rescues me with a brick-sized wad of Z$20 million at the black market rate of Z$1.1 million to US$1. The official rate exists only for Mugabe's cronies, enabling them to buy US dollars at a fraction of their real value and amass enormous wealth. The friend also finds me alternative accomodation with a white professional couple in a suburb less crippled by power cuts.
Outwardly Harare appears unchanged. Handsome homes in avenues with names like Argyll Street and Bath Road are ablaze with jacaranda, bougainvillea and brilliantly-coloured flamboyant trees. Then you notice the telltale signs of economic meltdown: the paucity of cars, empty petrol stations, broken traffic lights, blank billboards, legions of hitchhikers, roadside hawkers selling pathetic piles of firewood.
You also see great snaking queues outside banks and supermarkets. Cash-starved banks restrict withdrawals to Z$5 million per person, but Zimbabweans with jobs are desperate to cash and spend their weekly salaries before they lose their value. Supermarket shelves have been almost empty since draconian price controls made it impossible for producers to cover their costs, so occasional deliveries of bread or sugar cause frenzied excitement.
Over dinner my friend has to go into the neighbouring restaurant to light his cigarette because matches are hard to find. He pockets the sugar sachets that came with coffee. Even toilet paper is scarce. He has a fine line in black humour. “What did Zimbabweans have before candles?” he asks. “Electricity!” He occasionally drives 1,400km to Botswana and back to buy a carful of provisions.

Friday, November 16
Richard Mills, the Times photographer, flies in clutching a fishing rod and posing as a tourist. I spend the day meeting contacts who will pass us on to opposition activists around the country. That is the only way foreign journalists can operate. You assume telephones are tapped; you snatch surreptitious pictures. It is dangerous for people to talk to you, even anonymously, but they do so because they want the world to know what is happening.
A contact has organised a dinner in a restaurant. One guest arrives late — he had found eggs and a chicken being sold on the black market. Another discovers the restaurant has tonic water, so snaps up a dozen bottles. “We've become a nation of scavengers,” a third observes. And of broken families. The diners have 13 children between them. Eleven have emigrated, and the last two intend to.
Money dominates the conversation, and Zimbabweans have of necessity become proficient mental mathematicians. Someone produces a Zimbabwean one cent note printed in August 2006 and calculates that it is worth 0.0000007 of a US cent — the world's most worthless banknote. The dinner costs Z$102,950,000 — US$34,000 at the official rate. I can just see it on my expenses form.

Saturday, November 17
Most whites have access to foreign currency, enabling many to buy generators, water storage tanks, and food on the black market. Most blacks do not and live on crumbs, with the conspicuous exception of the few thousand who enjoy Mugabe's patronage.
We spend the morning in Mbare, a Harare slum, with two plucky black church workers who introduce us to destitute women who are forced into prostitution knowing that Aids will kill them. They show us parentless children living alone in brutal, run-down housing projects. They trick a cemetery official into opening his voluminous register by saying we are priests. In one week there were 244 funerals, mostly of 20 and 30-year-olds.
We offer our guides lunch. They order T-bone steaks. We realise they are half-starved. They tell us they scratch a living by making 16-hour bus rides to South Africa and buying soap or cooking oil to sell on the black market at a tiny profit. Later my friend ropes us into a cricket match on the well-tended, sunlit grounds of Prince Edward's School, a colonial legacy. Surreal.
Driving home, we swing past Garvin Close, a suburban cul-de-sac guarded by armed soldiers. This is the home of Mugabe's “special guest”, Mengistu Haile Mariam, the former Ethiopian President responsible for 1.5 million deaths during a 14-year reign of terror. Do he and Mugabe ever meet for a dictators' dinner, I wonder?

Sunday, November 18
Out to the township of Mabvuku where women dredge muddy water from the bottom of deep holes because their taps have been dry for months. A local doctor says cases of diarrhoea and dysentry are soaring. He also says that of the 65 doctors he trained with 50 now work abroad, and that he no longer sends patients to government hospitals because there are no doctors or drugs to treat them.
We leave for Bulawayo, 450km away. Outside Harare we pass endless barren fields. The Government is predicting the “mother of all agricultural seasons” on every radio bulletin, but there is a woeful shortage of fertiliser, seeds and irrigation. Nowadays, snorted a farmer in Harare, a “bumper crop” is one that reaches the height of a car's bumper.

Monday, November 19
We need more fuel and cash. Our hosts direct us to a suburban bungalow where two middle-aged white men siphon petrol from a plastic container. They visit Botswana twice a week and bring back 3,000 litres a time to sell to trusted customers. We also change US$100 into a carrier bag full of notes. The unofficial rate has risen to Z$1.3 million. It jumps towards the end of the month as the central bank buys up black market dollars to pay Zimbabwe's electricity and other foreign bills.
An English friend asked me to bring out a food parcel for his sister-in-law. We find her in a rundown area of north Bulawayo, one of the last whites still living there. Her spartan bungalow is ringed by wire fencing and padlocked gates. “Hallelujah!” she cries when she opens the bag.
Her story is sad and absurd. She and her husband, a farmer, lost all their savings to hyperinflation. They have no source of foreign currency. For weeks she has lived largely off porridge. “We have no water, no power, no food. You name it, we haven't got it,” she says. They still have land outside the city, but they grow nothing on it because it would be seized the moment they did.
We are shocked by Bulawayo. Once Zimbabwe's industrial hub, its factories are mostly now silent. Its power station is shut. Four of its five reservoirs are empty. The Government has ordered shops to stay open, but they have nothing to sell. “You'd think you were in shops that sell shelves,” our hostess remarked.
There is hardly any newsprint for the local paper, or bottles for beer. Pius Ncube, the city's outspoken archbishop, has left for Rome after being caught with a woman in a government sting. A hospital doctor we knew has left in disgust after a patient died for lack of saline drips.
A cavernous supermarket offers seasonings but no meat; jams but no bread; cereal but no milk; food for pets but precious little for humans. The manager says he must stay open or lose his licence. He cannot dismiss any of his 40 staff. He doubles their pay every month, but that fails to counter inflation. On the rare occasions he gets a delivery of sugar or cooking oil he gives each employee a small allocation to sell on the black market. “Customers used to come to buy whatever they needed. Now they buy whatever they can get,” he says.
For his own needs he visits South Africa once a month, or buys black market goods outside his shop at five times the official price. He has just put up Christmas decorations: “Although there's nothing to buy at least the spirit is there.”

Tuesday, November 20
The Bulawayo mayor, a member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, gives us an interview. He has hung the statutory portrait of Mugabe behind his desk so he always has his back to the man.
A cleric takes us out to the bush where 500 families whose homes were destroyed by the Government live in abject poverty and rudimentary shelters unfit for animals. The children are barefoot, dressed in rags and play soccer with a ball made of rolled-up plastic bags.
Back in town, we watch policemen running from a supermarket, clutching packets of sugar, while several hundred people queue outside. They have free rein to supplement their pathetic salaries through plunder and extortion.
In the afternoon we visit a secondary school whose headmaster faces what he calls “challenges”. He has lost 6 of his 27 staff since February, and expects 5 more to leave when term ends in December. Some simply vanish overnight. They cannot survive on their US$11 monthly salary, he says. 200 of his 600 students are orphans; he reckons 100 are HIV-positive. Despite the risk, girls are selling their bodies to get food. How many of them? I ask “Almost the whole school.”
The day ends bizarrely. We dine at Nesbitt Castle — a Scottish baronial castle built by a local magnate in 1904 and now a hotel. It is full of stuffed animals, fading pictures of 1930s cricket teams, suits of armour. We eat minestrone soup, roast lamb and pear crumble in a magnificent candlelit dining room. The black staff sing happy birthday to a white guest at the only other occupied table. After dinner we drink scotch and play snooker. We could be back in Rhodesia.

Wednesday, November 21
At a rural clinic way out in the bush we find children who are literally starving. Most of the adult patients have Aids, and half are seriously malnourished. The doctor says the clinic sends the terminally ill home before they die because it is cheaper to send a live body on a bus than a dead corpse on a donkey cart.
Returning to Bulawayo we stop at a farm seized by Mugabe's henchmen a few years ago. The main house is now a roofless, windowless shell stripped of everything except the bathtub and a lavatory. Fetid black water sits in the bottom of the swimming pool.
The land around is littered with broken farm machinery, rusting silos, empty water tanks and fallen trees. Fields that once rippled with maize and wheat lie abandoned. Where the drive rejoins the road, a couple of ladies hawk a pathetic bowl of onions and tomatoes.
Back in Bulawayo we visit Ascot, the old racecourse. People cannot feed themselves now, let alone horses, and it has not been used in five years. The racetrack is overgrown, the rails broken, the stands empty and forlorn. Faded hoardings advertise the Castle $150,000 Classic and the 100,000 Guineas — prizes worth less than ten US cents each today.
On the edge of town we also find the old Formula One motor-racing course. There are no locks on the gates. The tyres that formed the crash barriers have been burnt. But the starter's podium survives, the grids are still visible on the track and the surface is fine. Nobody is around. The temptation is too great. I'll wager our Avis rental car has never moved so fast.

Thursday, November 22
Before dawn we drive 30 miles south. As the sun rises, we climb a vast dome of smooth rock. On top is a low granite tomb with a plaque inscribed: “Here Lie the Remains of Cecil John Rhodes”.
Surveying the spectacular panorama of rocky, bush-covered hills stretching away in all directions, I wonder what the 19th-century adventurer from Bishop's Stortford would make of today's Zimbabwe.
How long will it be before the European structure he imposed on this beautiful bit of Africa vanishes altogether?
“Mugabe,” Richard remarks as we leave, “is in serious danger of giving colonisers a good name.”
Times0nline - by Martin Fletcher.

ISRAELI AVOIDS UK ARREST THREAT!

Avi Dichter was head of Shin Beth when Israel killed Saleh Shehada. An Israeli minister has cancelled a visit to the UK over concerns he could be arrested on war crimes charges. The foreign ministry said an "extreme leftist" organisation was likely to file a legal complaint against Public Security Minister Avi Dichter.
He was the domestic intelligence agency chief in 2002 when Israel bombed a Hamas military leader's house killing him, his bodyguard and 15 civilians.
British law allows private citizens to file complaints of alleged war crimes.
"Minister Dichter has cancelled this trip following threats of him being arrested in Great Britain. This is an intolerable situation," said his spokesman Barak Sari.
He had been invited to London as keynote speaker at a counter terrorism seminar at Kings College.
The visit was called off after the UK government had been unable to guarantee him immunity, his office said, in the event of a private citizens complaint leading to an arrest warrant for war crimes.

The Shin Beth agency, headed by Mr Dichter between 2000 and 2005, helped plan the assassination of Hamas military commander Saleh Shehada in July 2002.
Nine children were killed in the raid. A one-tonne bomb was dropped on Mr Shehada's house. The dead included his wife and his three children.
In the face of international condemnation, including Israel's main ally the US, Israel conducted an investigation and concluded that the raid had been a "mistake".
In 2006, the Israeli army scrapped pla