MAN DECAPITATED ON CANADIAN BUS !

A man on a Greyhound bus travelling across the Canadian Prairies has killed and decapitated a fellow passenger.
An eyewitness said the victim was stabbed 50 or 60 times by the man sitting next to him, who then severed his head with a large knife.
The bus made an emergency stop to allow passengers to escape and the driver barred the door from the outside while waiting for the police to arrive.
The bus was travelling from Edmonton, Alberta, to Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Greyhound Canada said there were 37 passengers and a driver aboard the bus.
"All of a sudden, we all heard this scream, this bloodcurdling scream," passenger Garnet Caton told CBC television.
"The attacker was standing up right over the top of the guy with a large hunting knife - a survival, Rambo knife - holding the guy and continually stabbing him... in the chest area," Mr Caton added.

The attack continued as passengers fled the bus and waited for police on a desolated stretch of the TransCanada Highway near Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.
"He calmly walks up to the front [of the bus] with the head in his hand and the knife and just calmly stares at us and drops the head right in front of us," Mr Caton said.
"There was no rage in him ... It was just like he was a robot or something," he added.
A man was taken into custody by police at around 0100 (0700 GMT) on Wednesday night, according to reports.
Mr Caton said he and a truck driver helped the bus driver bar the bus door to prevent the attacker from leaving.
When the attacker tried to drive the bus away, the driver disabled the vehicle.
"Some people were puking, some people were crying, other people were in shock ... everybody was running, screaming off the bus," Mr Caton said.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said only that a "major incident" took place on the bus as it drove along the Trans-Canada Highway en route to Winnipeg from Edmonton.
Other passengers said that the attacker and his victim were sitting at the back of the bus and the victim, described as around 20 years old, was listening to music through headphones.
The attack appeared to be unprovoked and it is thought the killer did not know his victim.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

TIPS TO GET AHEAD IN BEJING !

As Beijing prepares for a large influx of Olympic spectators, Beijing-based blogger David Feng sets out some ground rules for foreigners new to the city.

Chi fan le ma? [Translation: Have you eaten?] My top tip is to make sure that you learn some Chinese. Just a bit. Locals absolutely love it the moment you speak Chinese. The question chi fan le ma? is quintessentially Beijing. The Beijingers are more into eating than any other people I know. They go nuts over food. For them, few things are better than lunch. Say this phrase to your average Beijinger and you almost become a native yourself. It's the best kind of greeting and said in true Beijing style.

Be prepared: you will be used for English practice Beijing locals love outsiders. Not just foreigners - but people from other parts of China too. They say "Friends are coming over from all over the world - aren't you pleased?" In the remoter districts of the city, some people might get excited when they see a foreigner. Be prepared for people to approach you and practise their English.

Small-talk can be blunt.

Prepare for the bluntest of Chinese small-talk - even if you are a lady. In the West it is sometimes seen as a capital offence to ask a lady how old she is. In China be prepared to be asked how old you are, if you are married and if you have kids. If the small-talk gets interesting, they might disclose how much they earn and ask you to disclose the same! The Chinese are extremely open people and in China, this kind of privacy is a new thing.

Stop! Look both ways! In China a zebra crossing does not necessarily mean cars will stop for you. Some will but the great majority won't. So when in Beijing, don't assume that cars will stop for you at a zebra crossing.

Smile, smile...

That's what the police are being told. Smiling police officers make your day, they say. I would say to the police, don't smile for the heck of it, smile if you're relaxed. A smile in China doesn't necessarily mean the smile is happy. If someone is confused, or nervous, they may well smile.

No to Xiaojie

One word you should not use in a Beijing restaurant to get the attention of a waitress is xiaojie - which means Miss. In today's usage it has slightly pornographic connotations. Fuwuyuan - which is more like garcon - is the best way of addressing a young lady or a man serving you.

Seek what unites

In the West I see books saying it is not a good idea to talk about politics or religion. I think the same goes for China. If you must go into politics, approach with caution. Many Chinese people are sensitive when talking about regions, countries and territories. There is a saying that many Chinese adhere to: "We seek what unites us and we let live what separates us..."

When in Beijing prepare to get renao [Translation - hot and noisy]

Go to a karaoke bar in Beijing and you will find people singing, clapping, a lot of noise and people enjoying themselves. Beijing is renao in the best possible way. Even when old ladies go to the park, you can see them dancing and twisting around and beating drums and cymbals - that is also very renao. People know how to have a good time and this can also extend to clapping and cheering at the Olympics. So just have fun and enjoy Beijing!

BBC NEWS REPORT.

RUSSIA HIT BY DOPING SUSPENSIONS !

Seven Russian athletes have been provisionally suspended for doping offences, the International Association of Athletics Federations has announced.
Five of the seven, including Yelena Soboleva and Tatyana Tomashova, were bound for Beijing.
Distance runner Yulia Fomenko, Darya Pishchalnikova (discus) and Gulfiya Khanafeyeva (hammer) were the other Russia Olympic squad members.
The other two athletes are Svetlana Cherkasova and Olga Yegorova.
Soboleva - the reigning 1500m world indoor champion - is the world leader over 800m and 1500m this year, while Tomashova was world champion in 2003 and 2005 and claimed silver at the Athens Olympics four years ago.
Fomenko finished second behind Soboleva over 1500m at the world indoor championships in Valencia earlier this year.
The two field-eventers are also of pedigree, with Pishchalnikova the reigning European discus champion and hammer thrower Khanafeyeva a former world record holder.
The seven have been charged under IAAF rules for a "fraudulent substitution of urine which is both a prohibited method and also a form of tampering with the doping control process", according to a statement from the world governing body.
The statement continued: "These rule violations were established following the deliberate storage of samples by the IAAF and re-analysis using comparative DNA techniques, and were the result of a specific investigation which was instigated and carried out by the IAAF for more than a year.
"The IAAF will make no further comment until a final decision has been taken by the ARAF (All Russia Athletics Federation), which now takes over the responsibility to adjudicate these cases."
The athletes have up to 14 days to request a hearing with the national member federation.
If a hearing is requested, it must be held within a period of two months.
The Beijing Olympics athletics schedule is set to get under way on Friday 15 August.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

QUAKE ROCKS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA!

An earthquake measuring 5.4 has caused buildings to shake across a wide area of southern California in the US.
The epicentre was 29 miles (46km) south-east of central Los Angeles, near Chino Hills in San Bernardino County, officials said.
The quake was felt as far south as San Diego but there were no reports of any serious casualties or damage.
Offices and restaurants were evacuated, and residents reported cracks in the walls of their homes.
The US Geological Survey initially said the tremor measured up to 5.8, but later downgraded its size.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said the region had been lucky to avoid a major disaster.
"This reminds us once again that in California we have to be prepared for anything and everything," he said.
The BBC's Peter Bowes in Los Angeles said the quake initially felt like a rolling motion - followed by a sudden shaking sensation that lasted about 10 seconds.

"It was dramatic. The whole building moved," said Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore, who was in the sheriff's Monterey Park offices east of Los Angeles.
Many other buildings swayed across central Los Angeles and office workers quickly poured out onto the streets.
"We had forgotten what a big earthquake felt like, at least I did," said seismologist Kate Hutton.
"It's a drill for the big one that's going to happen someday."
There have been no reports of power cuts in the area, although telephone services were disrupted because of a surge in demand on the network.
More than 20 aftershocks were reported following the quake, the strongest measured at 3.8.
In 1994, a 6.7 magnitude earthquake in Northridge, California, killed 72 people, injured another 9,000 and caused $25bn (£12.5bn) worth of damage in the area.

BBC NEWS REPORT

ZIMBABWE INTRODUCES NEW CURRENCY !

Bank governor Gideon Gono announces plans to overhaul Zimbabwe's currency.
Zimbabwe's central bank has said it will introduce a new currency on 1 August as part of efforts to fight the effects of hyperinflation.
The bank's governor, Gideon Gono, has announced zeros will be lopped off the Zimbabwe dollar, making 10bn dollars one dollar.
Only last week, the government introduced the Z$100bn note.
South Africa's Thabo Mbeki is visiting Harare after crisis talks between government and opposition were halted.
He will meet President Robert Mugabe, whom the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have accused of stealing the election earlier this year.
Mr Mugabe said he wanted the talks to succeed but warned that "sometimes compromise is difficult".
The BBC's Peter Biles in Johannesburg says it has emerged that President Mbeki held a meeting in the South African capital, Pretoria, on Tuesday with the MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mr Mbeki, the lead mediator on the Zimbabwe crisis, has said the two sides are determined to reach an agreement within a two-week time-frame at the talks in a secret location near Pretoria.
But opposition sources said the talks have reached deadlock.
After the currency announcement, Mr Mugabe warned the country's businessmen in a televised address to stop profiteering or face emergency measures.
"If you drive us more than you have done we will impose emergency measures, and we don't want to place our country in a situation of emergency rules, they can be tough rules you know," Reuters news agency reports him as saying.
Mr Mugabe blames Zimbabwe's economic problems on white businessmen and Western sanctions, rather than his own policies.
The latest currency announcement is another desperate attempt by Mr Gono to stabilise Zimbabwe's collapsing economy, our correspondent says.
"The Zimbabwe dollar will be redenominated by a factor of one to 10, which means we are removing 10 zeros from our monetary value. Ten billion dollars today will be reduced to Z$1... effective from 1 August," Mr Gono said in a television broadcast.

The BBC's Andrew Harding goes food shopping in Harare.
The high rate constrained the operations of the country's computer systems, with computers, calculators and banks' cash machines not able to handle basic transactions in billions and trillions of dollars, he added.
The new Z$100bn (under $2, £1) note introduced last week is not enough to buy a loaf of bread.
Inflation is officially running at more than 2,000,000%, but many analysts believe the true inflation figure is at least 9,000,000%.
A BBC reporter in Harare said that on the day he recently went shopping, a tray of 24 eggs went up from Z$375bn to Z$600bn.

ZIMBABWE TALKS
What MDC wants:
Mugabe to step down
"Transitional authority" to organise new elections

What Zanu-PF wants:
Mugabe to be accepted as president
MDC to take a few minor ministries
International community to drop sanctions and help kick-start economy

Full text of the Memorandum of Understanding[39KB]
Bitter hope in Harare

So far this year, Zimbabwe has been forced to print Z$100m, Z$250m and Z$500m notes in rapid succession, now mostly worthless.
Mr Mugabe said he would like a speedy conclusion to talks with the MDC so "we can focus in the future our attention around our economy", AFP news agency reports.
The negotiations began last week after Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai met for the first time in a decade.
Mr Tsvangirai pushed Mr Mugabe into second place in the first round of voting on 29 March but he pulled out of a 27 June run-off election after a wave of deadly attacks against his supporters.
The MDC says that more than 120 of its supporters have been killed, some 5,000 abducted and 200,000 forced to flee their homes after being attacked by ruling Zanu-PF militias and security agents.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS" !

"OFTEN THE SEARCH PROVES

MORE PROFITABLE THAN THE GOAL "

______

WEB CURBS FOR OLYMPIC JOURNALISTS !

The press will be accommodated in a high-tech facility in Beijing.
Journalists covering the Beijing Olympic Games will not have completely uncensored access to the internet, Chinese and Olympic officials say.
Sites related to spiritual group Falun Gong would be blocked, officials said. Journalists also found they could not see some news or human rights websites.
China enforces tough internet controls, but said when it bid for the Games that journalists would be free to report.
A senior international Olympic official called the move disappointing.
But International Olympic Committee press commission chairman Kevan Gosper confirmed that officials had been aware of it.
"There will be full, open and free internet access during Games time to allow journalists to report on the Olympics," he told the South China Morning Post.
"But I have also been advised that some of the IOC officials had negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked."
"I am disappointed the access is not wider," he said.

Which websites has China blocked?
Reynolds' China: Searching sites

More than 20,000 foreign media personnel are due in the Chinese capital to cover the Olympic Games, which begin on 8 August.
Many are already moving into the press and broadcast centres in Beijing.
On Tuesday, they were unable to access the website of Amnesty International as it released a report criticising China's human rights record.
Some international news pages and sites that dealt with issues such as Tibet were also inaccessible, journalists said.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao confirmed that websites relating to the Falun Gong spiritual movement were blocked.
"As to sites related to Falun Gong, I think you know that Falun Gong is a cult that has been banned according to law, and we will adhere to our position," he told a news conference on Tuesday.
He suggested that part of the problem with other sites could lie with the sites themselves.
"There are some problems with a lot of websites themselves that makes it not easy to view them in China," he said. "Our attitude is to ensure that foreign journalists have regular access to information in China during the Olympic Games."

But on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Olympic organising committee told the French news agency AFP that other - unspecified - sites were blocked.
Sun Weide declined to provide more details when asked by the BBC.
But he said reporters would be able to do their jobs.
"During the Olympic Games we will provide reporters with sufficient and convenient internet access so the Olympic Games will not be affected," he said.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CHINESE MAN HELD FOR QUAKE PHOTOS !

Parents are angry at the ease with which some schools collapsed.
A Chinese teacher has been detained for posting images on the internet of schools that collapsed in the Sichuan earthquake, a rights group has said.
Human Rights in China said Liu Shaokun had been ordered to serve a year of "re-education through labour".
Mr Liu was detained for "disseminating rumours and destroying social order", the group said.
The 12 May quake killed nearly 70,000 people. Many of those who died were children whose schools collapsed.
The poor condition of the school buildings has become a sensitive political issue for the government, and grieving parents have staged numerous protests demanding an inquiry.
Many have accused local officials of colluding with builders to allow them to get away with cheap and unsafe practices.
"Instead of investigating and pursuing accountability for shoddy and dangerous school buildings, the authorities are resorting to re-education through labour to silence and lock up concerned citizens like teacher Liu Shaokun and others," said Human Rights in China Executive Director Sharon Hom.

According to Human Rights in China, Mr Liu's wife was informed by police last week that the teacher, from Guanghan Middle School in Deyang city, had been sent to a labour camp.
The "re-education through labour" system allows police to incarcerate a crime suspect for up to four years without the need for a criminal trial or a formal charge.
The system, in place since 1957, has been widely criticised by the UN and other organisations.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

S.A. MUSLIM HIV TEST CALL CONDEMNED !

Mr Shah said the Muslim community was not immune from the HIV threat.
Aids activists in South Africa have dismissed as unconstitutional a call for all Muslim couples to have a compulsory HIV test before marriage.
"It undermines public health and it will further stigmatise and discriminate against people," Aids activist Fatima Ahmed told the BBC.
The proposal was made by opposition MP Maulana Rafeek Shah.
He told the BBC the objective was not to discriminate but to educate the Muslim community about the Aids threat.

Aids Threast Community
"The objective is to remove the stigma and the mystery that is associated with HIV and Aids," the Democratic Alliance MP told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
-"South Africa has the world's highest HIV/Aids prevalence rate infection, in fact I would not be exaggerating if I said HIV poses a far more serious threat to security of South Africa and South African society as a whole than any other conventional threat."
"The Muslim community is... not immune."
Mr Shah said the United Ulama Council of South Africa, which oversees Muslim clerics, was going to consider his proposal later in August.
But Ms Ahmed of South Africa's Aids Law Project said the move may be "well intentioned" but was widely unpopular.
"It falls foul of a number of constitutional protections and will, if implemented, actually contravene our laws on informed consent and on voluntary disclosure," she said.
"Making pre-marital testing compulsory and then disclosure to the cleric performing your wedding ceremony under Islamic law is not going to empower you," she added.
Promoting HIV tests during marriage, especially polygamous marriages, would be a better initiative as married women were under more serious threat, she said.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

LINGERING POLLUTION WORRIES CHINA !

By Michael Bristow - BBC News, Beijing.

China has admitted it could introduce further emergency measures to cut air pollution during the Olympic Games.
One expert said that could mean taking 90% of Beijing's private cars off the streets at particularly bad times.
Figures show pollution levels have been relatively high over recent days - on some days thick smog is severely reducing visibility.
The BBC found one pollutant at the Olympic Village was three times higher than the recommended level on Monday.

See the results of the BBC's pollution tests

China has already introduced a series of measures to curb air pollution, including taking half the city's cars off the roads.

If this new series of measures don't work, it's hard to think of what else this city can do - apart from pray for wind or rain -The BBC's James Reynolds.

Reynolds' China: Olympic arrivals

Polluting factories surrounding Beijing have also been told to close.
But an article in the state-run China Daily gave details of the further, stricter measures that could be introduced.
"More vehicles could go off the roads, and all construction sites and some more factories in Beijing and its neighbouring areas could be closed temporarily," a front-page article said.
This was confirmed by Professor Zhu Tong, of Peking University, who advises the Beijing government about air pollution.
He confirmed that 90% of the city's private cars could be taken off the roads under these stricter controls.
Any emergency measures would be introduced 48 hours in advance of very bad pollution, he said.
"There is a chance... that we cannot meet the air quality standards so stricter measures are needed," said Prof Zhu.

Pollution facts and figures
In pictures: Pollution-watch

He maintained that the current measures had reduced pollution, but not by enough to guarantee good air quality every day.
China promised to clean up its air pollution for this summer's games, but figures show it still does not meet the toughest World Health Organization standards.
Small particles in the air - PM10 - are a particular worry. WHO guidelines say 50 micrograms per cubic metre is the standard to aim for, but Beijing rarely hits that target.
At the Olympic Village on Monday, the BBC found the PM10 level was at least 145, while at the BBC office it was 134.

Separately on Monday, Greenpeace published its assessment of China's efforts to clean up Beijing for the Olympic Games.
It says, that overall the attempt to get rid of pollution has created a "positive legacy" for the city and should be commended.
"Greenpeace found that Beijing achieved, and in some cases surpassed, original environmental goals," the report says.
But it said in other areas, including air quality, Beijing had not met targets, and has had to bring in short-term measures.
"Beijing could have adopted clean production measures more widely across the municipality to speed up the improvement of air quality," the report says.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

MUGABE SANCTIONS BAFFLE S. AFRICA !

South Africa has criticised new sanctions against Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe, suggesting they could obstruct power-sharing talks.
Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said it was "difficult to understand" the aim of new sanctions.
Last week, both the US and the EU extended sanctions against individuals and organisations linked to Mr Mugabe.
Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party began talks with opposition officials in South Africa last Thursday.
The talks are aimed at resolving a bitter dispute over Zimbabwe's presidential elections.
"For us, it is difficult to understand the objectives of new sanctions," Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said.
"The Zimbabweans are meeting, let them sort out what they want for their future. We should not allow outside interference," he said.
A spokesman for South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki has said that the power-sharing talks, which are subject to a media blackout, are proceeding well.
Currency reform
Meanwhile, there has been speculation that Zimbabwe will take measures to tackle the country's rampant inflation.
State media reported at the weekend that the central bank plans to knock several zeros off the Zimbabwean dollar in an effort to overcome cash shortages that are crippling the economy.
But Zimbabwean journalist Brian Hungwe says some economists expect the government to introduce a new currency.
Zimbabwe knocked three zeros off its currency in 2006.

Last week, Zimbabwe introduced a Z$100bn note, as official figures put inflation at 2.2m%. Real inflation is believed to be much higher.
Mr Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, agreed to talks after meeting last week for the first time in a decade.
Mr Mugabe won a second round presidential vote a month ago after Mr Tsvangirai pulled out, complaining of a campaign of violence against his supporters.
Mr Tsvangirai had won the first round in March, but official results gave him less than the 50% needed for outright victory.
Since the first round, the MDC says at least 120 of its supporters have been killed, about 5,000 abducted and 200,000 forced from their homes by pro-Mugabe militias and the army.
Cabinet ministers and military officials have denied the charges.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

DEADLY RAMPAGE IN U.S. CHURCH !

The church's congregation had been watching a performance by 25 children.
A man has opened fire in a church in the US state of Tennessee, killing two people and wounding seven others.
Children were putting on a play in a Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville when the man fired a shotgun.
There were about 200 people in the church at the time of the shooting. All the victims were adults.
Police say they have detained the gunman, who is believed to be in his 40s. He reportedly concealed his weapon in a guitar case.
No information has so far been released about his identity or his possible motive.
But some have suggested the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church was targeted because it is very liberal - allowing gay ministers and marriages.

Church member, Steve Drevik: 'We are praying for everyone at the hospital'
One witness said the attacker had shouted "hateful words".
He took a 12-gauge shotgun and opened fire into the congregation, who were watching a performance by 25 children based on the musical, Annie.
People dived for cover under pews, but nine were hit before a group managed to tackle the gunman when he reloaded.
"It had barely begun when there was an incredibly loud bang," church member Mark Harmon told the Associated Press news agency.
Mr Harmon said people sitting just behind him in the second and third rows of the congregation were shot.

Police have named one of the two people killed as Greg McKendry, a 60-year-old usher at the church. The other, Linda Kreager, died of her injuries at a nearby hospital a few hours later.
Church member Barbara Kemper said that Mr McKendry had "stood in front of the gunman and took the blast to protect the rest of us".
The deputy chief of Knoxville Police Department, Bill Roehl, called the attack "horrendous".
"It's terrible that you come to church to do worship and something like this occurs," he said.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

MAFIA BOSS ARRESTED WHEN SHOPPING !

A leading member of one of the most notorious clans of the Naples mafia has been arrested while shopping in Rome.
Local media name the man as Adriano Graziano, known as "The Teacher", who was detained without a fight as he left a designer clothes store.
Mr Graziano, of the clan of the same name, escaped capture in May when police arrested 23 alleged members.
The Grazianos are known for a bloody war against the Cava clan of the Naples mafia, also known as the Camorra.
Investigators say Mr Graziano gave the orders for an ambush which killed the mother and sister in law of the rival clan chief in 2002.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

Cathy Buckle's Weekly Letter From Zimbabwe !

TOUGH LUCK !

Dear Family and Friends,

Watching MDC and Zanu PF leaders signing an agreement to talk, and then actually shaking hands on Monday the 21st of July, was something of a miracle. It would be naive to say that this signals the end of the crisis but it is a single step forward and it cannot have come soon enough.

That's the good news, the bad news is that everything else seems to have been put on hold while talks begin. It's a paralysis having a devastating effect and most people simply don't know how to cope from one day to the next.

The Governor of the Reserve Bank continues to limit daily withdrawals from banks to 100 billion dollars - this is currently worth less than 20UK pence or 40 US cents or 2 South African Rand. It is a criminally cruel policy which is causing extreme suffering. The daily maximum withdrawal is not enough to buy even a single scone which this week cost 140 billion dollars. A single scone, made with imported flour is the height of luxury for the vast majority of people and entails standing in a bank queue for two days to buy just one and by the time you have the money in your hand the price has gone up.

When I got sick a few days ago I stood open mouthed in the pharmacy when I was told the common penicillin based antibiotic would cost 2 trillion dollars. They would not accept a cheque and were not interested in discussing the matter -it was just tough luck! The 2 trillion dollar price tag represented 20 working days in a bank queue. I phoned another pharmacy and was told that their price was 1.6 trillion dollars. When I arrived there an hour later they said the price had gone up and was now 3 trillion dollars.

My own experience is being encountered by people from all walks of life across the country - and I cannot believe that people are not dying because they simply cannot access even basic medicines. Everywhere there are stories of such suffering from people who can't get enough of their own money out of the bank to buy food, medicines, life preserving drugs and the means of everyday survival.

The inevitable result is that people that can are pouring out of the country in their thousands in order to survive. A South African Department of Home Affairs spokesperson said the number of people arriving at a Refugee reception area in Johannesburg had gone from 800 a day to more than 5 000 a day in the past month alone.

Those left at home have this week suddenly found themselves in a strange place where everything is being charged in US dollars or South African Rand. A woman outside a medical office in Harare selling bread at 10 Rand a loaf. Rooms in high density suburbs being rented out for 100 rand a month. Adverts for cottages to lease at 200 US a month. Meat in a local butchery where only US dollars are accepted. The agreement between Zanu PF and the MDC to talk is all very well butwhile they do we have no food, no medicines and aren't allowed to draw our own money out. It feels like slow genocide without bullets and bombs.I am taking a short break so until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy

Copyright cathy buckle 26 July 2008

RATKO MLADIC'S VERY PERSONAL WAR !

After the capture of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, the BBC's Paul Martin recalls meeting another Balkan war crimes suspect - Mr Karadzic's military commander Ratko Mladic, who is still on the run.

Gen Mladic led Bosnian Serb troops throughout the 1992-1995 war.
Thick-set guards with walkie talkies and body armour blocked the way to the front gate.
I was walking towards a two-storey villa in a leafy suburb of Belgrade, the house that I was pretty sure was sheltering one of Eastern Europe's most notorious indicted war criminals, General Ratko Mladic.
"This is diplomatic property," said one of the guards in good English, as he thrust me hard up against a jeep.
After a few messages his walkie-talkie crackled again and they released me, with a warning that next time I would not be so lucky.
That was 2002, just after the former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic was put on trial in The Hague for orchestrating the Bosnian war.
A lady told me she would often see Gen Mladic strolling in a park, close to a big military base, with his sweet little dog.
But soon after my visit he disappeared again and he is still at large, presumably protected by elements of the Serb military - he is still seen by some of them as a patriotic hero.
Expressionless eyes
I had met the general several times before. The last encounter was in the mid-1990s on top of a mountain that, despite a supposed ceasefire, he and his armed band of Serb militiamen had just captured from Bosnian Muslim fighters.
He was standing with an air of triumph on his large round face. He was handing over the mountain, near the city of Sarajevo, to the United Nations' forces in a bizarre Serb-imposed ceremony on a ski slope beside two cable cars.

More than 7,000 Bosniak men and youths were killed in Srebrenica.
The city, you will recall, had been the venue for the 1984 Winter Olympics. On the mountain peak Gen Mladic gave us our long-promised interview, pledging he would conquer all of Sarajevo soon, and walked to a helicopter camouflaged nearby.
"Oh," I said. "I thought all sides agreed to the United Nations ban on using any form of aircraft in this war?"
The general stared at me with his expressionless blue eyes and his thick-set jaw got even thicker.
"The commander of the Bosnian Serb armed forces does not ride on a donkey," he said. And seconds later he was airborne.
Personal vendetta
Gen Mladic could hardly hide his contempt for the international figures who were trying to keep this war from getting even worse.
He would deliberately mispronounce the name of the European Union's chief envoy David Owen, for example. He called him David O-van, which means David the Sheep in Serbo-Croat.
He would take any visitor on a trip around his home village in Bosnia and show them every location where he said 101 people from his own extended family had lived before they were, he said, slaughtered by a pro-Nazi band of Muslim fighters during World War II.
Yes, this war was personal.
Gen Mladic had served in the Yugoslav army so long he knew many of the commanders on the opposing Bosnian Muslim and Croat sides.
He would even radio them - their ex-Yugoslav army walkie talkies all had the same frequency - and ask about their health, their wives, their children, then inform them: "In 10 minutes we're gonna knock you guys to hell and back," or some such wording.
Bad taste
His relationship with the now detained political leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, was somewhat uneasy.
I once asked him, as the two men stood together, who took orders from whom. "I report to him," said Gen Mladic. "But I am in command of fighting this war."
Mr Karadzic gave the impression he found the fighting somewhat distasteful.

The UN has charged Mr Karadzic and Gen Mladic with genocide.
I once heard him screaming for silence from a group of drunken Serb fighters as they sang war songs and let off volleys of gunfire from the back of their armoured vehicle as it pulled up near his headquarters in Pale, another former ski resort overlooking besieged Sarajevo.
The Bosnian Serb leader was obsessed by the rule of the Turkish Ottoman empire, which he thought was being re-imposed, and cursed the Americans for supporting the side of the Muslims.
One day he insisted we fly with him by helicopter to see what he called a massacre of Serb villagers by marauding Muslim fighters.
The helicopter ducked and dived to avoid potential ground fire. Mr Karadzic seemed unwell, he cowered in his seat, blocking both ears with his hands. His loyal wife Liljana put her hands in front of our camera and ordered us not to film him in that position.
"The world does not need to blame him for getting air sick as well," she said.
When we landed we found 28 Serb bodies, all men of fighting age, laid out in Vlasenica's town square.
Mr Karadzic turned to our camera and said: "If this goes on, I think there will not be many Muslims left in Bosnia."
A foretaste of the ethnic cleansing that was to become the grim hallmark of the war.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

BEIJING'S OLYMPIC VILLAGE OPENS !

The first athletes have checked into Beijing's newly-built Olympic village, with 12 days to go until the Games.
China's basketball star Yao Ming and hurdler Liu Xiang were present for a flag-raising ceremony at the heavily guarded site.
The opening came on a muggy morning and correspondents reported a haze of pollution over the village's complex of luxurious, high-rise apartments.
In all 16,000 competitors will stay there during the games.
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville, in Beijing, says the flats - housing either four or eight people each - have been built to an unusually high environmental standard for China.
Solar energy will power some of the buildings, and unlike most of China, residents will be able to drink the water straight from the tap.
Specially extended beds have been installed for taller athletes.
Food safety is a concern in China, so everything served to the athletes will have undergone spot checks at mobile laboratories, our correspondent says.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, a vice-president of Beijing's organising committee, Chen Zhili, said: "We now welcome athletes from around the world to come to the Games."
Chen, the so-called mayor of the village, added: "We will try to satisfy the needs of people from different cultural and religious backgrounds."
He received a symbolic gold key to the village from organizing committee president Liu Qi, also the head of Beijing's Communist Party.
Chinese athletes were the first to check into the village.
The flats will be refitted and sold after the Olympics.
Reports say they will cost up to $1m (£500,000) - considered a high price even in Beijing's soaring property market.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

DEATH ROW RICHEY ARRESTED IN CITY !

Kenny Richey was freed from prison in January.
Kenny Richey, the Scot freed from death row in America earlier this year, has been detained by the police after an incident in Edinburgh.
Lothian and Borders police said a 43-year-old man was in custody after an incident in Orwell Terrace.
Police would not comment on the nature of the incident but one report said streets were cordoned off and a man was on the roof of a building.
Police said no-one was hurt. Richey is expected to appear in court on Monday.
Kenny Richey spent more than two decades in a US jail awaiting execution.
He was released at the start of the year after agreeing a deal with the US authorities.
Richey was originally convicted of starting a fire that killed a two-year-old girl in Ohio and always maintained his innocence.
After his release, he returned to Scotland, where he had lived as a child.
Earlier this year it emerged that Richey had mouth cancer and was due to have a malignant growth removed from inside his cheek.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

WHY IS JOHN BARROWMAN GAY?

Barrowman: On a quest to find out about his sexuality.

Torchwood star John Barrowman has known he was gay since he was nine. But was he born that way or did his upbringing have something to do with it? Here, he explains why he set out to try to solve this mystery, for the BBC One show The Making of Me.

I was in the closet for three hours once in 1972. It was dark, uncomfortable, and really cramped. Plus, I was convinced I wasn't alone (a crumpled jacket lurking in the corner looked pretty dangerous). I was five and my brother, Andrew, then 10, and my sister, Carole, 13, had shoved me into the coat closet because, well, really for absolutely no good reason. I mean what baby brother has ever annoyed his siblings to the point of needing to be locked up or tied down?

This story still gets a laugh from my nieces and nephews. Depending on who's doing the telling, Uncle John was either locked up for 30 fleeting minutes or for three long, tortuous, oxygen-starved hours. As simple as the story is I think it's an apt metaphor for the way I've chosen to live my life - openly, honestly, with no regrets. And, whenever I can, I try to confront the monsters in the dark. As my favourite Jerry Herman song proclaims: "There's no return and no deposit. One life. So open up your closet."

FIND OUT MORE...
John Barrowman: The Making of Me is one BBC One at 2100 BST on 24 July
Or watch it later on the BBC iPlayer

My sexuality has never been deliberately hidden. I'm in a committed relationship with the love of my life, Scott Gill, and he is as much a part of the family as my sister's husband, Kevin, and my brother's wife, Dot. However, just because I'm comfortable with my sexuality doesn't mean that I'm not curious about it and that's one of the reasons I agreed to take this journey to discover the making of me.

I remember vividly when I first realised I was gay. I was nine and a few of my friends were looking at some mild porn in the playground during recess. While they were ogling the well-endowed female models, I couldn't take my eyes off the male members in the shot.

Growing up in the Barrowman household, conversations about sexuality were never taboo. Over the years, we've talked about many of the theories that may explain what makes a person gay. In fact, it's always been a bit of a joke in our family that my dad was responsible - he frequently dressed me up as a girl. In fact, he has some cross-dressing in his own past. He once dressed up as a tarty neighbour, pretended to crash his own party, and proceeded to flirt with the men in the room- all with my mum playing along for the laughs.

Nature or nurture?
The show actually gave me an opportunity to discover whether or not I had ancestors who were gay because years ago if you were in the closet you were so far in the closet you were in the house next door.

John Barrowman: The Making of Me
During the filming of the programme, I not only revisited my childhood, I was also subjected to a battery of psychological and physical tests, everything from comparing my DNA to that of my straight brother, Andrew's, to watching my brain light up like a fireworks display in response to certain erotic stimuli.
I've always been convinced I was born gay (and am happy that way). But over the years there are plenty of people who have argued the opposite - and some still do today. I really wanted to meet people like this, and the film gave me a chance to do so. In the unresolved argument about whether it is nature of nurture that makes us gay or straight, I was hoping for affirmation that nature decides. The risk I took in filming was that it would be disproved.

But in the end neither happened as the tests didn't provide that clarity. I learned that science has yet to find a fool-proof and definitive genetic test for gayness - at least in my case.

Hormonal explanation?
Yet I did find something unexpected and different. The latest science is concentrating on a whole new area of potential causality that I hadn't thought about at all. It's not genes, but it is biological, looking at hormonal effects in the womb.

Attracted to women? Barrowman's Captain Jack character flirts with Billie PiperOther psychological and physical tests told me more about my sexuality. Like whether I had any latent attraction to women at all. That one really caught me by surprise - at least for a moment. And in word association tests, men tend to be more factual and literal. But women and gay men tend to be much more descriptive and eloquent. I'm glad to say that was true for me as well.

Another test involved looking at moving images of different combinations of men and women. I had to press buttons to signal my reaction while lying in an MRI scanner which also measured my reaction so I couldn't lie. I'm proud to say that in some of the tests I was totally off the scale.

So participating in this programme was exciting and provocative, but in the end, taking the personal risk to discover what makes me gay was worth it because on a daily basis I get letters from young men and women who are feeling the brunt of our culture's homophobia. If exploring this issue can bring comfort to some of these young people then I think the programme will have done a really wonderful thing.
Written by John Barrowman and Carole E Barrowman

BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS" !

"WE FORFEIT THREE-QUARTERS OF

OURSELVES

IN ORDER TO BE LIKE OTHER

PEOPLE" !

HAMAS ARREST DOZENS AFTER BLAST !

Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip have arrested dozens of Fatah supporters and set up checkpoints after an explosion killed six people.
A powerful explosion inside a car travelling past a beach in the Gaza Strip on Friday killed five Hamas activists and a six-year old girl.
At least 15 other people were said to have been injured by the explosion.
It was the third bomb attack in a day - one of the bloodiest since Hamas and Israel agreed a ceasefire last month.
Earlier on Friday, a bombing outside a cafe in Gaza City killed one person - reportedly the perpetrator - and injured at least three others, Hamas officials said.
It was unclear why the area was bombed, but there have been attacks on internet cafes, music shops and Christian institutions in Gaza in recent months.
Officials also reported a bombing near the home of Marwan Abu Ras, a Hamas politician and academic. No-one was injured.

The explosion on Friday night at a major junction besides Gaza City's beach killed three Hamas members and the girl immediately, according to a statement by the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Two more Hamas members died of injuries on Saturday, the statement added.
The girl killed in the blast had been on her way to the beach with her family, medics said.
Afterwards, Hamas did not explicitly accuse its bitter rival, Fatah, of carrying out the attack, but it did imply it, the BBC's Aleem Maqbool says.
Khalil al-Hayya, a Hamas leader whose son was wounded in the blast, blamed Palestinian groups "who collaborate with the enemy [Israel]".
"We have information that some elements are planning to carry out bombings against the interests and leaders of Hamas in order to sow anarchy," he told the Reuters news agency.

The Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, however, were more explicit and blamed "members of the fugitive party" - a derogatory term for Fatah.
Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007 from the Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Most have been afraid to challenge the Islamist movement and so while there has been dissent, factional killings have decreased considerably, our correspondent says.

bbc news report.

TRANS-FATS BANNED IN CALIFORNIA !

California has become the first US state to ban restaurants and food retailers from using trans-fats, which are linked to coronary heart disease.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said the new legislation, which will take effect in 2010, represented a "strong step toward creating a healthier future".
Violations will incur fines of between $25 (£13) and $1,000 (£502).
Trans-fats are chemically altered vegetable oils, used to give processed foods a longer shelf-life.
Some cities, like New York City, Philadelphia and Seattle, have already banned the fats. Many food makers and restaurant chains have also been experimenting with replacements for oils and foods that contain them.
Trans-fats are produced artificially in a process called hydrogenation which turns liquid oil into solid fat.
They can be used for frying or baking, or put into processed foods and ready-made mixes for cakes and drinks like hot chocolate.
Trans-fats are used because they are cheap, add bulk to products, have a neutral flavour and give products a long shelf-life. They have no nutritional value.

TRANS-FATS
They are partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, turning oily foods into semi-solid foods
Used to extend shelf life of products
Put into pastries, cakes, margarine and some fast foods
Can raise levels of "bad" cholesterol
Even a small reduction in consumption can cut heart disease
They have no nutritional benefit.

The US Food and Drug Administration estimates that on average, Americans eat 4.7lb (2.14kg) of trans-fats each year.
A review by the New England Journal of Medicine in 2006 concluded that there was a strong connection between the consumption of trans-fats and coronary heart disease. It found they boosted "bad" cholesterol levels in the body.
The review said that eliminating artificial trans-fats from the food supply could prevent between six and 19% of heart attacks and related deaths each year.
The legislation signed by Mr Schwarzenegger will ban from 1 January 2010 the use of trans-fats in oil, shortening and margarine used in spreads or for frying.
The president of the California Academy of Family Physicians, Jeffrey Luther, said that the law, "when it finally takes effect, will be a tremendous benefit", adding that there was no safe level of consumption, as with cigarettes.
The California Restaurant Association opposed the ban, but a spokesman said that it had no plans to challenge it in the courts, in part because some restaurants have already begun to phase out trans-fats to satisfy customers.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

FRESH US SANCTIONS FOR ZIMBABWE !

The US has imposed new sanctions on Zimbabwe, accusing President Robert Mugabe of heading an "illegitimate" government that sponsors violence.
US President George W Bush signed an executive order expanding restrictions against individuals and organisations linked to Mr Mugabe's government.
Mr Bush said the sanctions were a "direct result" of government actions.
Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party has begun power-sharing talks with the opposition in an effort to end a political crisis.
The president was re-elected with a landslide majority in June's presidential vote, a poll boycotted by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which said its supporters have been subjected to a state-sponsored campaign of violence.

In a statement issued by the White House, Mr Bush said he approved action against Mr Mugabe's government after the Zimbabwean leader continually ignored international pressure to stop election-related violence.
The new sanctions will affect 17 Zimbabwean companies with links to the government - including the Agricultural Development Bank of Zimbabwe, and will ban US citizens from doing business with them.

Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai shook hands at their first meeting in a decade"No regime should ignore the will of its own people and calls from the international community without consequences," Mr Bush said.
The move expands the list of Zimbabwan companies and individuals banned from dealing with the US to more than 250, after sanctions were first imposed in 2003.
On Tuesday, the European Union also expanded its list of allies of Mr Mugabe subject to travel and business restrictions.
Mr Bush added that he hoped the talks between Mr Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, currently underway in South Africa, would "result in a new government that reflects the will of the Zimbabwean people".
If so, the US would be ready to provide "a substantial assistance package, development aid, and normalisation with international financial institutions," Mr Bush said.
Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai shook hands on Monday as they signed a memorandum paving the way for talks.
It was the two men's first meeting in a decade.
The MDC says at least 120 of its supporters have been killed, about 5,000 abducted and 200,000 forced from their homes since the first round of the elections, in a campaign of violence by pro-Mugabe militias and the army.
Cabinet ministers and military officials have denied the charges.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

SCRUM FOR LAST OLYMPIC TICKETS !

By Michael Bristow - BBC News, Beijing.

Thousands of people have descended on ticket booths across the Chinese capital, Beijing, to get their hands on the last batch of Olympic tickets.
Police had to call in reinforcements at one sales centre near the main Olympic venues to hold back surging crowds.
Tickets for high-profile events were snapped up in a matter of hours.
A total of 820,000 tickets went on sale from 0900 local time, but some people had been queuing for days. Buyers have been restricted to two tickets each.
The biggest scrum appeared to take place at the booth near the main Olympic venues, where crowds had to be held back by police.
Many waiting were drenched in sweat by the time they finally made it to the front of the queue.
One man said he had managed to jump the queue at a particularly chaotic moment.
This sales centre was selling tickets for a number of high-profile events, including the much-sought-after 110m hurdles final.
Chinese athlete Liu Xiang is the reigning Olympic champion in this event and tickets sold out in just half an hour.
Tickets for diving events, another sport in which China excels, were gone in just a few hours.
There were more orderly line-ups at other Olympic venues.
Overnight queues
At the Workers' Stadium, where tickets for Olympic football matches were on sale, people had been queuing since Thursday.

Many braved the heat to buy the last batch of tickets.
Many had brought stools to sit on, and something to eat and drink, as they waited in a queue that was several hundred metres long.
Others shared cigarettes or stood in line fanning themselves as the morning temperature began to rise.
"We've been here all night. It wasn't too bad," said Song Lihua, as she stood holding an umbrella to shade herself from a sun that was struggling to break through the morning smog.
Ms Song was near the front of the queue, but still expected she would have to wait another four or five hours.
"They are too slow," she shouted, a call repeated by others. "There are only three tickets windows open."
Others who had just arrived were amazed - and slightly depressed - to find so many people already waiting.
"The queue's too scary," said student Xie Gu, who had come up to Beijing from southern Zhejiang Province to get an Olympic ticket.
The 20-year-old said he was going to walk to the end of the queue to see how long it was before deciding whether or not to stay.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZIMBABWEANS 'START CRISIS TALKS' !

Representatives of Zimbabwe's ruling and opposition parties have begun power-sharing talks in South Africa, officials there have said.
The talks began after the arrival of the four main negotiators from Zimbabwe's capital, Harare.
President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai signed a deal agreeing to the negotiations on Monday.
The talks, intended to end a crisis following disputed presidential polls, are slated to last two weeks.
Progress will have to be swift for the talks to be concluded within that timeframe, the BBC's Jonah Fisher reports from Johannesburg.
The structure and composition of a new government is yet to be decided, as is the future of Mr Mugabe, our correspondent adds.
President Mugabe signed a memorandum of understanding with Mr Tsvangirai on Monday, paving the way for the talks.
It was their first meeting in a decade.
Both men claim to have won this year's elections.

ZIMBABWE TALKS
What MDC wants:
Mugabe to step down
"Transitional authority" to organise new elections
What Zanu-PF wants:
Mugabe to be accepted as president
MDC to take a few minor ministries
International community to drop sanctions and help kick-start economy

Full text of the Memorandum of Understanding[39KB]
Voters' views
Q&A: Zimbabwe crisis

Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), won the first round in March, but official results gave him less than the 50% required for outright victory.
Mr Mugabe then claimed victory in the second round after Mr Tsvangirai pulled out, complaining of a campaign of violence against his supporters.
The start of the talks on Thursday was confirmed by the office of South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been leading mediation over Zimbabwe.
The deal bans parties from talking to the media and there had been conflicting reports about when negotiations would start.
Zimbabwe's state-owned Herald newspaper reported that the negotiators from Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the MDC travelled to South Africa on the same flight on Wednesday.
Zanu-PF is represented by Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Public Services Minister Nicholas Goche, while the MDC has sent Secretary General Tendai Biti and Deputy Treasurer Elton Mangoma.
A Zanu-PF official told the Herald that the party's politburo had been briefed on the negotiations at a meeting on Wednesday.
"We gave Comrade Chinamasa and Comrade Goche the green light for them to go ahead with the negotiations within the parameters signed by the principals," said Zanu-PF deputy secretary for information and publicity Ephraim Masawi.
The MDC says at least 120 of its supporters have been killed, about 5,000 abducted and 200,000 forced from their homes since the first round of the elections, in a campaign of violence by pro-Mugabe militias and the army.
Cabinet ministers and military officials have denied the charges.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

HIV DRUGS 'ADD 13 YEARS OF LIFE' !

Life expectancy for people with HIV has increased by an average of 13 years since the late 1990s thanks to better HIV treatment, a study says.
Researchers said it meant HIV was now effectively a chronic condition like diabetes, rather than a fatal disease, the Lancet reported.
The team, involving Bristol University staff, looked at over 43,000 patients.
The study found a person now diagnosed at 20 years old could expect to live for another 49 years.
But the Antiretroviral Therapy Cohort Collaboration, which includes scientists from across Europe and Northern America, warned this was still short of the life expectancy for the wider population which stands at about 80.
These advances have transformed HIV from being a fatal disease, which was the reality for patients before the advent of combination treatment, into a long-term chronic condition
Professor Jonathan Sterne, lead researcher
Antiretroviral treatment for HIV consists of drugs which work against the infection itself by slowing down the replication of the virus in the body.
This method of therapy was introduced in the 1990s, but has since become more effective and better tolerated.
The researchers looked at life expectancy during three time periods after the introduction of the drugs - 1996-9, 2000-2 and 2003-5 - in high income countries.
Just over 2,000 patients died during the study periods.
They found that while patients aged 20 diagnosed in the 1990s could expect to live another 36 years, that had increased by 13 years by 2003-5.
During the middle time period, life expectancy stood at an extra 41 years.
Success
Lead researcher Professor Jonathan Sterne said: "These advances have transformed HIV from being a fatal disease, which was the reality for patients before the advent of combination treatment, into a long-term chronic condition."
He added the development was a "testament" to the success of the anti-HIV drugs.
But the researchers warned those diagnosed later in the course of the infection had a much shorter life expectancy.
Marc Thompson, deputy head of health promotion at the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: "HIV medication has become much more effective since the early days.
"There has been great progress, but research needs to continue, especially for those who have developed resistance to some drugs and are running out of options."
But he added the study also highlighted the need for early diagnosis, pointing out an estimated a third of people with HIV do not know they have it.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

PAINTER FINED FOR SMOKING IN VAN !

Gordon Williams says he will appeal against the £30 fine
A painter and decorator from Ceredigion says he is "dumbfounded" after being slapped with a £30 fine for smoking a cigarette in his own van.
Gordon Williams says he had popped to the shops earlier this month, when he was pulled over by council officials.
"I was told that because my van is my place of work I had broken the smoking laws," he said.
A council spokesperson said anyone handed a fine is eligible to appeal against the decision.
"I am dumbfounded - the van is only insured for private use and to get me to and from work," added Mr Williams, from Llanafan, near Aberystwyth.
"It not my place of work - I decorate houses not vans."
The grandfather decried the on-the-spot penalty as the "Big Brother state going too far".
He added: "I respect anyone who chooses not to smoke, but I would also ask for the same respect to have the freedom to smoke in my own private vehicle."

Mr Williams was driving on the A487 near Aberystwyth in his unmarked blue Suzuki Carrier van when he was pulled over by council officials carrying out spot checks on the safety of vehicles.
He believes it is the first ticket of its kind handed out by the council since the smoking regulations came in last year - the fixed penalty notice was number 0001.
Mr Williams' wife Sue has already paid the fine, fearing it would increase if not settled promptly.
But her husband remains defiant, and said he would be challenging the punishment.
"I have appealed against this even though I initially paid the fine otherwise it would have increased to £50.
"I've sent up my insurance certificate and am awaiting the outcome.
"Ridiculous"
Simon Clark, the director of smoking freedom group Forest, condemned the fine as "absolutely ridiculous".
He said: "It smacks of some jobsworth council official interpreting the law to the most extreme level.
"This surely is not what the change in the law was intended for - it was not meant to harass and persecute people going about their ordinary lives.
"It is ridiculous that someone should be fined for smoking in their own private vehicle away from any workplace."
Ceredigion Council said they could not comment on individual cases.
A spokesperson added: "The legislation allows for a right of appeal and the procedures in relation to this are set out in the notices."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

WATERMELON 'HAS SAME EFFECT AS VIAGRA' !

By Tulip Mazumdar - Newsbeat health reporter.

Watermelons are loaded with anti-oxidants which are good for the skin.
Eating watermelon has a similar effect on the body to Viagra, according to researchers in the US.
It's down to a chemical called citrulline which is found in the juicy fruit.
Citrulline is an organic compound which affects the body's blood vessels in the same way as the sex enhancement pills.
It helps relax the blood vessels which means blood gets around the body more easily.
The research comes from the US' Texas Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Centre.
Dr Bhimu Patil led the research. He said: "We've always known that watermelon is good for you, but the list of its very important healthful benefits grows longer with each study.
"Watermelon may not be as organ specific as Viagra... but it's a great way to relax blood vessels without any drug side-effects."
It's also claimed watermelons are good for your heart and immune system.
The vast majority of watermelon (92%) is made up of water. But the remaining 8% is loaded with the anti-oxidant lycopene which is also good for your skin.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS" !

"LIFE IS NOT A MATTER OF HOLDING

GOOD CARDS,

BUT SOMETIMES,

PLAYING A POOR HAND WELL" !

___________

THE DANGERS OF TOO MUCH DETOX !

By Martin Hutchinson

Good - but in moderation.

A woman was left disabled after following a "detox" diet which involved drinking large quantities of water.
Although doctors stress the need to avoid dehydration by drinking enough fluids, drinking more than enough is a different matter.
The human body may be mostly water, but you can have too much of a good thing.
In the most serious cases, "water intoxication" can kill, and there is, say experts, scant evidence that drinking even slightly more water than usual can improve your health.
The current popularity of detox diets which recommend drinking many litres of water a day, and drinking even when not thirsty, could cause problems if taken to extremes, they say.
The claim is that drinking more than usual can do everything from improving your skin tone to "flushing out" toxins from your body.
You shouldn't be drinking massively over and above what you feel with comfortable with
Ursula ArensBritish Dietetic Association
However, the amount of water actually needed in a day varies from person to person, and depends on other factors such as climate, and exercise, says the British Dietetic Association.
Flawed industry
Ursula Arens, a dietician, said that there was a difference between normal consumption of one or two litres a day, not just in the form of water, but also from coffee, tea, and juice, and constant, ritualistic consumption of water throughout the day.
"You shouldn't be drinking massively over and above what you feel with comfortable with, when you're not thirsty, in a mechanical way."
She said that the evidence supporting the whole "hydration industry" was flawed.
"If you're a top sportsman, earning £10,000 for a single game, I can understand the need to focus intensely on your hydration, but not if you're someone just doing a couple of lengths at the swimming pool.
"It's just a great marketing opportunity, nothing more."
She said that the science of detoxing was unsupported by evidence, partly because its precise effects on the body had never been defined.
She added: "The body already has perfectly good ways of getting rid of toxins - mainly in the liver, and it's hard to see how consuming more water would affect these."

Others are more scathing about the fashion for both detoxing and taking frequent sips from an ever-present bottle of mineral water.
Kidney specialist Professor Graham MacGregor said there was no evidence that either had any benefit.
People should drink when their body tells them to - when they get thirsty
Prof Graham MacGregorSt George's University of London
He described how too much water could "overwhelm" the body's natural mechanisms for keeping levels in balance.
"The body already has a brilliant system for doing this, but if water levels in the blood rise too high, it just can't cope."
If vast quantities of water are taken, salt in the blood gets too dilute, he explained. When the salt solution in the blood is weaker than the solution in the cells and organs it supplies, water passes into those cells and organs.
In extreme cases, this causes organs such as the brain to swell up, and can stop it working properly, putting the drinker in serious danger.
Professor MacGregor said: "This isn't just a problem with water - we used to see patients who had been diagnosed with 'water intoxication' after drinking 20 pints of beer."
"In normal circumstances, then people should drink when their body tells them to - when they get thirsty.
"Anything else is completely unnecessary, and will just leave you standing in the queue for the toilet.
"Detox diets are a complete con in that respect."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

OPPOSITION REPRISALS IN ZIMBABWE !

It is thought opposition activists are taking revenge for earlier beatings.
Zimbabwean opposition activists returning from South Africa have driven supporters of President Robert Mugabe from their homes.
The incidents, close to Zimbabwe's border with South Africa, followed accusations of torture and arson attacks by war veterans.
Youths loyal to the opposition have now have now launched retaliatory attacks against the veterans.
Police were allegedly informed of the beatings but took no action.
The war veterans have been the most loyal supporters of President Robert Mugabe and played a key part in his victory in the final round of the presidential elections.
Three weeks ago, the Zimbabweans in South Africa - known as Injiva in the local Ndebele language - issued warnings to war veterans and the ruling Zanu-PF to stop harassing and killing their relatives in rural areas.
A BBC contributor says that in Matabeleland province more than 60% of young people work in South Africa and whenever they come home, there is chaos in the villages as the crime rate increases.
This time, he says, their targets were the war veterans.
Last week the Injiva returned from South Africa and were told of the destruction caused by the war veterans and the youth militia, our contributor adds.
Some of the Injiva were armed with pistols which were brought into the country illegally.
According to villagers in Plumtree, about 100km south of Bulawayo, dozens of war veterans were injured during the raids on their bases by Injiva.

BBC NEWS REPORT,.

INDIA'S DAILIT ICON AIMS FOR TOP JOB !

By Soutik Biswas - BBC News.

Mayawati has been described as an unorthodox politician. Will an "untouchable" become India's next prime minister?
The way a number of Indian opposition parties are rallying around Mayawati, a Dalit or "untouchable" icon, and touting her as a future prime minister must be gladdening the hearts of 160 million members of the community she represents.
The 52-year-old daughter of a government clerk who grew up in a shanty town in the capital, Delhi, has emerged as the pivot of a fledgling "third front" in Indian politics.
It is trying to throw down the gauntlet to the coalitions led by the governing Congress and opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Ms Mayawati's "third front" brings together a slew of regional parties and communists, who are still smarting after they stopped supporting the government over its nuclear deal with the US.
"The impact of Mayawati has sobered a lot of political parties. She has a larger-than-life image. Now it's a third front with Mayawati as the nucleus," says Shekhar Gupta, editor of The Indian Express newspaper.
This despite the fact that her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a regional party based in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, has only 17 seats in the parliament.
Since the 2004 general election, Mayawati's fortunes have soared. In the last state assembly elections a little over a year ago, her party swept to power winning 206 of the 403 seats and more importantly, had leads in 55 of the state's 80 parliamentary constituencies.
Her party also polled well in at least 60 parliamentary seats outside Uttar Pradesh, making her a pan-Indian Dalit icon of sorts.

The canny political strategist has also broadened her appeal, wooing upper-caste Hindus and Muslims - she has 29 Muslim and 52 upper-caste Brahmin members in the present state assembly.
In India's fractious and caste-driven polity, this is a masterstroke in social engineering - an unprecedented coalition of the poorest of the poor and the rich, and of Hindus and Muslims. And this has taken place in a state which accounts for one in seven MPs in the Indian parliament.

Mayawati is now the nucleus of the emerging new 'third front'.
The upshot, say analysts, is that her party has become a factor in about 10 states, and could play the spoiler there for the bigger parties in next year's general elections.
The unorthodox Mahatma Gandhi-baiting politician with a penchant for gaudy birthday celebrations, expensive jewellery and personal statues has been an enigma for India's upper classes and journalists.
On the one hand, her homegrown charisma and mass-based leadership qualities have never been in doubt; on the other, she has been assailed with charges of amassing wealth and property beyond her means.
"Her political peers and journalists have persistently underestimated her and her party. She has been regarded as an unguided missile that has explosive intent, but no sense of direction," says Ajoy Bose, who has written a book on Ms Mayawati.
But he says her triumphant Dalit-Brahmin alliance in Uttar Pradesh has become a "blueprint for electoral success" in India.

Analysts say Ms Mayawati thrives best during periods of political instability, even when she appears to lack the numbers to form governments.
With only 66 legislators in the 403-member assembly, she took power in Uttar Pradesh twice. She secured a third term with 99 legislators.
"Each time she was short of majority. She was able to grab power because other parties prevented each other from forming the government," says Ajoy Bose.
This is exactly what could happen if the Mayawati-led "third front" mops up about 100 seats or more in next year's general elections which are expected to leave no party with a clear majority.

Uttar Pradesh is one of the most backward states in India.
Analysts say that Ms Mayawati is also trying to move beyond a purely caste-based agenda to enhance her appeal among upper-castes and classes - her government recently brought in English in primary schools and announced new urban housing and health plans.
But she could also blow her chances because of what her critics describe as her "despotic" side, and a lack of any second rung of leadership.
"There is a kind of ruthlessness in her that can be self-defeating. Her party is too individual-centred, and does not have a policy management team.
"Then there is the looming threat of corruption cases against her," says political scientist Pratap Bhanu Mehta.
However, the prospect of Ms Mayawati becoming the prime minister has immense symbolic value.
"This would be a Dalit woman from the most populous Indian state and one who has earned her way to the top through education and political work, not inherited it via marriage or lineage," says analyst Mahesh Rangarajan.
The next general elections will tell whether Ms Mayawati manages to exploit this opportunity.

S. AFRICAN POLICE EVICT MIGRANTS !

South African police have forcefully removed hundreds of immigrants from temporary shelters where they had taken refuge from xenophobic attacks.
Authorities say the immigrants, who were taken to a repatriation centre in Johannesburg, had not registered with the home affairs department.
They now face deportation to their home countries, officials said.
More than 60 immigrants were killed and tens of thousands more fled during the attacks against foreigners in May.
A BBC reporter witnessed angry and emotional scenes at the Glenanda temporary centre as they were removed.
Some immigrants chanted "human rights for refugees" as they were driven away by dozens of riot police.
The BBC's Mpho Lakaje said the immigrants taken from the camp, where about 2,000 people were sheltering, included women and children.
"It is not the South African government's intention to deport a huge group of people, but we want to identify the ring leaders [behind unrest at the camp] and deport them," Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told South Africa's Independent newspaper.

Home Affairs spokeswoman Cleo Mosana said the immigrants had been offered exemption from deportation but had not taken it up.
She said they had been given enough time to apply for proper documentation, but had refused to do so.
Many foreigners said the registration process was not clearly explained, or that they did not register because they feared losing their refugee status.
The government denied this would happen.
One woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo said her sister was among those taken away.
"They are going back to their country, but I know in our country there is still fighting," she said.
Marylyn Mill, a volunteer who had been helping at the shelter, said she was "very, very disappointed".
"I'm ashamed to be a South African, that this is how people in my country can be treated by our government."
The violence began in a township north of Johannesburg before spreading to other parts of the country.
It was the worst bloodshed in the county since the end of apartheid in 1994.
Those attacked in May were blamed for fuelling high unemployment and crime.
Twenty-one South Africans, mistaken by gangs for foreigners, were among those killed.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CANOE FRAUD COUPLE SENT TO JAIL !

The wife of back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin has been jailed for six years and six months for fraudulently claiming £250,000.
Anne Darwin, 56, convinced insurance companies, a coroner and her sons her husband had died in a canoe accident.
She was convicted of six fraud charges and nine of money laundering at Teesside Crown Court.
Mr Darwin, who had earlier admitted deception, was jailed for six years and three months.
The 57-year-old reappeared in December five years after faking his own death by vanishing in the sea near Hartlepool.
Anne Darwin had put forward the defence of "marital coercion", meaning her husband made her act against her will.
As the jurors returned to the court, she smiled at them - but looked straight ahead as the verdicts were given on each of the 15 counts.
Her sons, who gave evidence against her, also showed no emotion as the guilty verdicts were given.
The couple came up with the plot as they faced bankruptcy.
In March 2002, prison officer John Darwin paddled out to sea near his home in Seaton Carew, then abandoned his boat and went into hiding.

His wife raised the alarm after driving him in secret to Durham railway station and a huge air sea rescue operation was mounted, without success.
He apparently spent several weeks in the Lake District, then returned home, where Anne Darwin kept him hidden inside the house for about four years.
When visitors called, he used a secret door to sneak into an adjoining bedsit, also owned by the Darwins.
Growing a full beard to act as a disguise, former school teacher John Darwin used the name of a dead child John Jones to apply for a new passport - and even a library card.
Once his death was made "official", Anne Darwin claimed her husband's £25,000 life insurance policy, his £25,000 teacher's pension, his £58,000 prison service pension, £4,000 in payouts from the Department of Work and Pensions, and a £137,000 Norwich Union mortgage insurance policy.
The couple planned to start a new life together in Panama, but the plot unravelled when John Darwin walked into a London police station last December.
At first, his sons were pleased at his return and his wife, who was in Panama, professed her profound shock at his re-emergence.
But the couple's deceit became apparent to their family as a photo of them together in Panama in 2006 was published in the media.

Police believe John Darwin's sudden return may have been sparked by a row.
Speaking outside Teesside Crown Court, Det Insp Andy Greenwood, of Cleveland Police, said: "We're pleased with the verdict received. Anne Darwin has been a compulsive liar.
"Every time evidence was put to her she came up with an account - she reacted to the evidence and another account was brought out.
"This is just 'half time'. Asset recovery teams will make sure that all the couple's financial benefits realised from this plot will be brought back to this country."
Gale Gilchrist, from Cleveland Crown Prosecution Service, who acted as junior counsel during the trial, said: "When John Darwin turned up 'from the dead' before Christmas last year it was seen at first as an amusing story for the festive season.
"But this was a callous and calculated fraud.
"The Darwins were willing to deceive family and friends and to waste considerable resources of the emergency services, all to maintain a lie that John Darwin had died and then exploit any compassion extended to them."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

AGAINST THE ODDS : BERNADETT BACZKO !

The BBC's Against the Odds series profiles athletes heading to the Olympics despite huge obstacles.
Nick Thorpe meets a Hungarian judoka who has returned to competition after a string of serious injuries - and a family tragedy.
Wherever you look in Bernadett Baczko's flat, there are signs of her profession.
Blue and white judo tunics hang drying on the balcony - her own, and those of her boyfriend, Laci.
There are photographs on the sofa, medals on the mantlepiece, and training shoes in the hall.
Laci cooks lunch while we talk in the living room.
It's a tiny flat, just 54 square metres, in Ujpest, a working-class suburb of Budapest, a stone's throw from the river Danube.

Bernadett Baczko
Competes in women's under 57kg category
Beat reigning Olympic champion in 2007 'Worlds'
In action on Monday 11 August from 0500 GMT

Tall poplar trees cushion the roar of the traffic from the main road which runs close to the building, funnelling commuters into the city.
Bernadett is relaxed on camera, full of pride in her achievements in her chosen sport, but there's no trace of arrogance.
"I began judo when I was nine, which turned out to be the ideal age for a girl, though I didn't know that at the time.
"I have three older brothers, and was brought up as a bit of a tomboy, but it was actually a friend, a classmate who first took me to a training session. I fell in love with it straight away."

Bernadett is taking no chances as she warms up for BeijingBernadett advanced in the sport with great strides, encouraged by all her family, but especially her mother.
She would come to all the competitions, and encouraged not only her daughter, but even Bernadett's rivals.
In 2002 Bernadett began winning international competitions. She narrowly failed to qualify for the Athens Olympics in 2004.
That was the year her "calvary", as she calls her suffering, began.

In August 2004, she and her team arrived late for a competition, and didn't have time to warm up.
In the very first match, I attempted a certain technique, and my leg got stuck. There was an awful pain in my right knee -Bernadett Baczko.
"In the very first match, I attempted a certain technique, and my leg got stuck. There was an awful pain in my right knee. But I took part in three more matches. I just didn't want to give up."
When she got home, her doctor could not understand how she managed to compete. The ligament in her right knee was torn.
In October that year, she was operated on.
"At about the same time, we found out that my mother had an incurable illness. She died in June 2005."
She relates how so many people mourned with her, in the Hungarian judo world as well.
Her mother's presence at matches had inspired many a young Hungarian judo hopeful.
Her funeral took place just as Bernadett was coming out of her 8 months forced retirement from judo, and was starting university in Budapest.

"In 2006 I started winning prizes again. But then I injured my other knee. Fortunately, it didn't need an operation."
Then in the spring of 2007, just as she was preparing for the World Championships in Rio, she contracted a serious stomach illness.
"This time, my coach assembled a whole team behind me - a doctor, a dietician, a psychologist..."
It paid off, and she won the bronze medal in Rio. And that is how she qualified for Beijing.
She shows the medal proudly. I study it carefully, but there's no text.
"If you hold it up to the light, you can tell its bronze...not gold or silver' she laughs.
Rio marked for her the end of the tunnel.
"It took me three years to come to terms with the loss of my mother, and with all the injuries...only now can I talk about these things without crying." And her voice barely quavers.
We race across town to the next training session - and arrive late, because of the interview.
But ahead of Beijing, she's taking no chances, and starts warming up straight away.
"It is an individual sport, but I'm lucky to be part of a really good, young team.
"We support one another hugely, which is very important, and will be decisive in the Olympics too. You could say we're even more excited for one another than we are for our own matches.
"And I think that's quite unusual."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZIMBABWE LEADERS 'TO SIGN DEAL' !

Mr Menkerios and other African envoys have persuaded the MDC to sign.
Zimbabwe's ruling party and opposition are due to sign a deal outlining a framework for talks on the country's political crisis, both sides say.
Haile Menkerios, the UN's envoy to Zimbabwe, said the deal would be signed by President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki is to fly to Harare to witness the deal.
The two sides are locked in a dispute over presidential elections - which they both claim to have won.
The agreement was due to be signed last week but Mr Tsvangirai pulled out.
Mr Tsvangirai garnered more votes in the initial presidential poll - but election officials said there was no outright winner and called for a run-off.
Mr Mugabe won the run-off - but he was the only candidate after Mr Tsvangirai withdrew, accusing the government of mounting a campaign of violence against his supporters.
Opposition conditions
"The signing will take place this afternoon," Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told the AFP news agency.
Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials also say they expect the agreement to be signed on Monday.

PRECONDITIONS FOR TALKS

MDC:
End to political violence
Release of supporters
Resumption of aid
Swearing in of MPs

Zanu-PF

Mugabe as President

But the BBC's Jonah Fisher in Johannesburg says the opposition insist that the signing ceremony is not held at State House - it is due to be held in a Harare hotel.
Our correspondent also notes that the five-page agreement to be signed does not go into details of a possible power-sharing arrangement - it is merely the starting point for substantive talks.
He says that the fact that the African Union (AU) and the United Nations joined the South African mediation efforts was crucial in persuading the MDC to agree to talk.
The MDC accuses the South African president of being biased in favour of Mr Mugabe, and Mr Tsvangirai had asked for another envoy to replace him.
On Friday, it was announced that a group of senior diplomats, drawn from the UN, AU and the Southern African Development Community (Sadc), would help Mr Mbeki.
One of those was Mr Menkerios, who said he believed the two men had agreed a draft memorandum of understanding setting out the terms under which they could enter direct negotiations.
But he said both men would have to sign the document to "clear the way" for talks.
The MDC still has several conditions to be met before starting substantive talks with Mr Mugabe.
Party spokesman George Sibotshiwe told the BBC that future talks would remain conditional on a complete cessation of violence and the release of all political prisoners.
"We want a government that creates a platform for us to democratise our society, in order for us to have a genuinely free and fair election," he said.
The MDC says at least 120 of its supporters have been killed, about 5,000 abducted and 200,000 forced from their homes since the first round of the elections, in a campaign of violence by pro-Mugabe militias and the army.
Cabinet ministers have denied the charges.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS" !

"IT IS PROSPERITY THAT GIVES US FRIENDS,

ADVERSITY THAT PROVES THEM" !

________

ARAB NATIONS 'AGREE SUDAN ACTION' !

Arab League ministers said the ICC move could destabilise Sudan.
Arab foreign ministers say they have agreed a plan of action to defuse the crisis between Sudan and the International Criminal Court (ICC).
They met in Cairo after the ICC's chief prosecutor said he would seek to indict Sudan's president on charges of war crimes and genocide in Darfur.
Ministers said the ICC move had set a dangerous precedent.
Amr Moussa, secretary general of the Arab League, said he would travel to Sudan on Sunday to discuss their plan.
However, he declined to reveal its details at the end of Saturday's emergency meeting.
Fragile peaceMr Moussa said that Arabs had to work closely with the African Union and the UN to protect the fragile peace process in Sudan.
In a joint resolution issued at the end of the meeting, foreign ministers of the 22-nation Arab League said the ICC move was not acceptable and undermined Sudan's sovereignty.
"The council decides solidarity with the Republic of Sudan in confronting schemes that undermine its sovereignty, unity and stability and their non-acceptance of the unbalanced, not objective position of the prosecutor general of the Internal Criminal Court," the resolution said.

Amr Moussa, Secretary-General of the Arab League, will visit Suda. Earlier, Algeria had called on other Arab nations to press the UN Security Council to stop the ICC from issuing the arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
"What the prosecutor of the court has done is a dangerous precedent," Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci told the meeting.
"We have [to take] ... a strong stance in solidarity with our brothers in Sudan and move effectively with regional and international organisations and the... states in the Security Council to immediately reconsider this demand by the prosecutor."
Sudan has asked China and Russia, as well as the Arab League and the African Union, to help it pursue a UN Security Council resolution suspending a warrant for Mr Bashir for 12 months.
Speaking after Saturday's meeting, Sudan's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Al Sammani al-Wasila, told the AP news agency: "We reject all the charges old and new."
But he added that "the position expressed by our brothers is fair and balanced".
ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has asked the court for a warrant for Mr Bashir on suspicion of masterminding crimes against humanity in the troubled Darfur region.
Mr Moreno-Ocampo accused Mr Bashir of running a campaign of genocide that killed 35,000 people outright, at least another 100,000 through a "slow death" and forced 2.5 million to flee their homes in Darfur.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

DEFIANT BEIJING FAMILY LOSES HOME !

By Michael Bristow - BBC News, Beijing

Despite great determination, the Yu family finally lost their struggle.
Workmen have torn down the home of a Beijing family that was refusing to move to make way for redevelopment.
A demolition crew pulled down the house early on Friday, according to people gathered outside the site.
Bedecked with posters, slogans and flags, the city-centre shack had been attracting attention from neighbours and passers-by.
The Yu family were refusing to move because they said the compensation being offered was far too low.
It was not immediately clear where the family is now living. Family members were not answering their phones.
Later, the local government admitted it had taken matters into its own hands after negotiations with the Yu's broke down.
"Because they had unreasonable requests and refused to relocate... they were forcibly moved," The Yus' home was one of more than 160 houses and shops that the local government decided to tear down in 2005 to spruce up the roadside area.

The slogan-covered house drew curious Beijingers.
Everyone but the Yus agreed to move. Just a few days ago, they were still promising to defend their property, bought 60 years ago, with their lives.
But virtually all traces of the house were quickly removed.
The Yus' tumble-down home, near many Beijing tourist attractions, was one of hundreds of "nail houses" that have sprung up across China.
These are houses whose owners refuse to budge to make way for redevelopment projects.
Families often complain that they are forced out of their homes and are not given enough compensation.
Earlier this week, a Swiss-based organisation estimated that up to 1.5 million people have been moved from their Beijing homes because of the Olympics.
The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions said this had taken place over an eight-year period leading up to this summer's games.
"[The] authorities have used tactics of harassment, repression, imprisonment and even violence against residents and activists," it said.
China disagrees with these figures. It says just 6,000 families have been moved to make way for Olympic building projects.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

Cathy Buckle's Weekly Letter From Zimbabwe !

GIFTS ARE BEING GIVEN !

Dear Family and Friends,

It's hard to believe that almost four months have passed since Zimbabweans voted for an MDC parliamentary majority and gave MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai the most presidential ballots. It's like that day never happened as 16 weeks down the line, the old order remains in place and we are stuck in a state of leadership denial.

It's been a brutal four months that Zimbabwe will never forget. A time when the country's leaders have bombarded us with hate speech, threatened us with war and tried to make us believe that they are immortal and their rule eternal. For the last four months we have been a population in a state of mourning as a litany of horror has become our daily lives: murder, torture, abduction, rape and arson.

And now, after all these weeks of abuse and before the soil has settled overfresh graves, gifts are being given by the same people who threatened war. Scotch carts, tractors, ploughs and cultivators are being handed out at gatherings where everyone is waving little flags, wearing Zanu PF clothes anddancing for the leaders.

It's hard to fathom that this can possibly be real: that people can be cheering and ululating for farming implements before the tears for the dead are even dry on our faces, before the results of our votes in the March elections have been implemented, let alone accepted.

It seems to be of no consequence that the constitutional deadline for the swearing in of MP's and Senators, the election of the Speaker of the House and Senate and the ceremonial opening of Parliament have all been missed.

As I write this letter the leaves from the Msasa trees are falling thick and fast. They are early this year and the sound of them raining down on the roof gives notice of a new season about to start. The falling of the leaves, like the wishes of the people, cannot be stopped - no matter how many gifts are given.

Until next week, thanks for reading, love cathy.

Copyright cathy buckle 20 July2008.

DIPLOMATS AID MBEKI WITH ZIMBABWE !

Mr Mbeki has been criticised for being too soft on Mr Mugabe.
A group of senior diplomats are to help South African President Thabo Mbeki in his efforts to solve Zimbabwe's political crisis.
Envoys will be drawn from the UN, African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (Sadc).
The move was welcomed by Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has been critical of Mr Mbeki.
Mr Tsvangirai is currently considering entering power-sharing talks with President Robert Mugabe.
Sydney Mufamadi, a close aide of Mr Mbeki, announced the creation of a "reference group" consisting of AU head Jean Ping, the UN's Zimbabwe envoy Haile Menkerios, and Sadc official George Chikoti.

PRECONDITIONS FOR TALKS
MDC:
End to political violence
Release of supporters
Resumption of aid
Permanent AU envoy
Swearing in of MPs
Zanu-PF:
Mugabe recognised as president.

Mr Mufamadi said the South African president had proposed the reference group during talks with the three envoys in Pretoria on Friday.
"[The group] will get briefings on a regular basis," he said.
"If a member of the reference group... wants to make a strategic input, they are welcome."
But analysts say Mr Mbeki is keen to remain the main mediator in the talks.
In a statement, Mr Tsvangirai welcomed the "appointment of a reference group of eminent Africans who will work with President Mbeki and the main parties in Zimbabwe to find a peaceful negotiated solution to the Zimbabwean crisis".

A memorandum of understanding setting out the conditions for talks on a possible power-sharing agreement was expected to be signed by Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai this week.
But Mr Tsvangirai did not sign it, insisting that his demands had not yet been met.
His party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), had identified Mr Mbeki - the lead negotiator in the talks - as a key problem.
They accused him of being biased towards Mr Mugabe, and Mr Tsvangirai had asked for another envoy to join the talks alongside Mr Mbeki.
The MDC has set several other conditions for talks, including the end of government-backed violence it says has killed 120 of its supporters.
It also wants Mr Tsvangirai's victory in the first round of the presidential vote on 29 March to be officially accepted.
Mr Mbeki was appointed in 2007 by Sadc, a regional grouping, to mediate in Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

MOB ATTACKS OFFICERS OVER LITTER !

Police in the Croydon area where two officers were attacked by a mob.
Two police officers were attacked by a mob in south London after they asked a 15-year-old girl to pick up her litter.
One officer was dragged to the ground and kicked while the other was bitten by a girl who jumped on his back.
Up to 30 people took part in the attack, which happened in North End, Croydon, on Wednesday afternoon.
Trouble flared when the 15-year-old threw her food wrapper back on to the ground and became aggressive. The two officers are currently on sick leave.
One eyewitness said he saw two police officers struggling with a girl before a group of youths joined in and began pushing and shoving the officers.

Lawen Karim, 19, said: "The girl got violent, her friends got really violent.
"The police - there were only two of them - they were really outnumbered and all these yobs were just pushing them out of the way.
"I didn't see any punch being thrown but it was disgusting the way they treated the police."
A girl who was arrested at the scene on suspicion of assault has been released on bail.

Two men, aged 34 and 38 and both from South Norwood, south London, have been arrested on suspicion of assault and violent disorder.
Police said the girl initially picked up the fast food wrapper when asked by the patrolling officers, but immediately dropped it again sparking the confrontation.
Both officers, aged 34 and 29, suffered bruising and knee injuries and the officer who received the bite wound required hospital treatment.
Police have been examining CCTV footage from the area.
Insp Simon Ellingham said: "We have heard from several retailers in the area who were horrified at the level of violence used by the crowd against the officers."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

NIGERIAN 'BLOOD OIL' CREW PARADED !

Stealing crude oil requires government cover, activists say. The Filipino crew of a boat laden with suspected stolen oil seized in Nigeria's oil-rich Delta region has been shown to journalists.
The military "paraded" them in front of local media in Warri, but they denied stealing crude oil.
This comes as the government shelved plans for a peace summit to address the Niger Delta conflict.
Nigeria's president has called for a crackdown on oil smuggling rings that steal at least $5bn (£2.5bn) yearly.
President Umaru Yar'Adua says the trade is behind the unrest in the Niger Delta, which has cut Nigeria's oil production by a quarter.
Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan has said the government has decided not to hold a planned giant summit involving thousands of delegates.
"People feel when you say 'summit', people will come from everywhere, different memos, sentiments, and they will say it is a jamboree. We are not using the word summit," he said.
He said the government would instead have "dialogue" to try and bring peace to the Delta but did not give any details.

The Filipino crew were arrested by the military last week in the inshore waters of Bayelsa state.
They were on board a vessel that was loaded with tens of thousands of tons of crude which they could not account for, the military said.
Ship's captain Rev Chavez said they were the victims of piracy, and had been locked up in the bridge of the ship by youths who boarded the boat.

The crew will be handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) when the military's investigations are complete, a spokesman said.
Meanwhile, the military has arrested 11 suspects in the Bonny Island area thought to be behind an attack on a navy houseboat in which five people were killed.
Military spokesman Lt Col Sagir Musa said they were involved in oil theft and militancy in the area.
President Yar'Adua is completing a trip to the UK, where British Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged military training to help Nigeria crack down on the trade in stolen oil.
But activists say that oil theft, known as "bunkering", is run by well connected people in Nigeria and abroad and it usually goes on unimpeded by law enforcement agencies.
Estimates of how much crude is stolen range between 100,000 and 500,000 barrels every day.
In the past, bunkering ships that have been seized have disappeared from naval dockyards.
In 2005 Rear Admirals Francis Agbiti and Samuel Kolawole were court-marshalled and sacked for allowing the tanker African Pride to escape the navy port in Lagos.
"Parading" of criminal suspects is common in Nigeria.
Police and other security services call a group of journalists to see an accused suspect after a few days of imprisonment, but before they have been charged.
The accused usually confess while the journalists take pictures.
But Col Chris Musa of the Joint Task Force denied the arrest was a publicity stunt.
"In the year that I have been in command, this is the fist ship that has come into the waters around the coast. No ship can come here without us knowing," he said.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

MANDEAL CELEBRATES 90TH BIRTHDAY !

Nelson Mandela, the man credited with ending apartheid in South Africa, has marked his 90th birthday by calling for the rich to do more for the poor.
"If you are poor, you are not likely to live long," he said at his village house in Eastern Cape province for a birthday interview.
He is expected to spend the day at home with his family.
His predecessor as president, FW de Klerk, described him as one of the greatest figures of the last century.
Mr Mandela was jailed for 27 years for his part in the ANC campaign against white minority rule but went on to become the country's first black president in 1994.
Since stepping down in 1999, he has become South Africa's highest-profile ambassador, campaigning against HIV/Aids and helping to secure his country's right to host the 2010 football World Cup.
Nelson Mandela used his personal charm... to mould our widely diverse communities into an emerging multicultural nation - FW de Klerk - former South African president.

Key figures in Mandela's life
World leaders' tributes
Your stories: Meeting Mandela

In 2004, at the age of 85, Mr Mandela retired from public life to spend more time with his family and friends and engage in "quiet reflection".
On Friday, he appeared before reporters to say: "There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those riches with those not so fortunate who have not been able to conquer poverty".
The fight against poverty is one of the causes taken up by Mr Mandela, the BBC's Peter Biles reports from Johannesburg.
Three years ago, the former president attended a huge rally in London as part of the Make Poverty History campaign.
Mr de Klerk, who was awarded the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize along with Mr Mandela, said the former president was a born leader with the "assurance, the humility and the grace of a true natural aristocrat".

LANDMARKS

1918 - Born in the Eastern Cape
1964 - Sentenced to life for high treason
1990 - Freed from prison
1993 - Wins Nobel Peace Prize
1994 - Elected first black president
2004 - Retires from public life
2005 - Announces his son has died of an HIV/Aids-related illness

Mandela's life and times

Mandela: A nation's icon

As president, he added, Mr Mandela had "used his personal charm to... mould our widely diverse communities into an emerging multicultural nation".
Friday also marks 10 years since Mr Mandela married his third wife, Graca Machel.
"He is simply a wonderful husband... and we enjoy every single day as if it is the last day," she told CNN.
The official birthday party is due to be held on Saturday in a gigantic white marquee erected in Qunu village.
Three cows are to be slaughtered for the festivities, with the banquet menu featuring traditional food such as tripe and sheep's heads, AFP news agency reports.
Birthday celebrations abroad have been going on for several weeks, including a concert in June in London's Hyde Park.
In other birthday events, reported by the South African Press Association:
The Eastern Cape agricultural department gives at least 150 goats to poor communities
The ANC unfurls two huge banners of Mr Mandela on the side of its headquarters, Luthuli House

Many of those who have worked with Nelson Mandela and had a close friendship with him over the years say that behind the adulation he inspires there is a very human and often extremely private figure, the BBC's Mike Wooldridge reports.
Fellow Robben Island prisoner Mac Maharaj told our correspondent Mr Mandela was truly an icon.
He reduced a veteran white police officer to tears on his inauguration day when he walked over to him, shook his hand and told him "today you have become our police".
But Mr Maharaj argues that the event that sheds most light on Nelson Mandela's character was the killing of the popular ANC leader Chris Hani in 1993.
Mr Maharaj believes that if Nelson Mandela had called for an insurrection in response it would have been unstoppable but, instead, he went on television to call for calm and commitment to democracy.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS" !

"WE CANNOT BECOME

WHAT WE NEED TO BE,

REMAINING WHAT WE ARE" !

__________

VENEZUELA ABUSE EFFORTS 'AT RISK' !

By James Ingham - BBC News, Caracas

Amnesty International has urged Venezuela to do more to protect women from domestic violence.
The rights group says a law passed last year which classifies domestic violence as a violation of human rights was a step in the right direction.
But Amnesty says the authorities have done little to implement it. Amnesty estimates that one woman in Venezuela is attacked every 15 minutes.
Latin America has some of the world's worst levels of domestic violence.
As in the rest of the world, women in Venezuela are still suffering violence at the hands of their partners or other family members.
In a report focusing on this often hidden problem, Amnesty has both praised and criticised the Venezuelan government.
It says a law classifying domestic violence as a violation of human rights goes some way to improving the situation. But it says little is being done to implement it.
There are still only three women's shelters in the whole country, far fewer than the number promised a decade ago. And the police and other authorities have not been properly trained to handle this kind of crime. A helpline, however, has been more successful.
Last year, 4,500 women called for advice. But local organisations estimate that only one in nine women reports abuse.
Women here are taking more control of their own lives and form an instrumental part in running community affairs.
Housewives and mothers have also been given more rights and benefits. But the report warns that the good example set by Venezuela is in danger unless more resources are allocated to this problem.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

U.S. 'TO OPEN IRAN BASE IN WEEKS' !

Condoleezza Rice has said the US wants to reach out to Iranian people. The US has refused to deny reports that it will establish a US diplomatic presence in Iran in the next month.
The UK's Guardian newspaper reports the US plans to open an interests section in Tehran, its first diplomatic presence in the country for 30 years.
The state department said its policy towards Iran was unchanged, but that it wanted to reach out to Iranians.
It comes as the US announced that a top diplomat would attend talks in Geneva with the Iranians on Saturday.
The talks will be the first time in 30 years that such a high-ranking US diplomat - the third-most senior in the US - has met Iranian officials.

US officials said recently that the idea of a diplomatic presence in Iran was being discussed, but that it was not being actively worked on.
The unsourced Guardian report said that the interests section - a step towards setting up an embassy - would be similar to the one in Cuba.

Signs of hope in Iran-US ties

When asked for a comment, the state department sent out a note with past comments made by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
She said that while US policy towards Iran was known and unchanged, the Iranian people deserved better.
Ms Rice added that the US was determined to find ways to reach out to the Iranian people and wanted more Iranians to visit the US.
While Washington still insists Iran must suspend uranium enrichment - a process the West fears could be used to make nuclear weapons - there seems to be a significant change in US tone, says the BBC's Kim Ghattas in Washington.
Tehran has an interests section in Washington, where it processes visa applications and which gives it a presence on the ground in the US.
But the US has not had a diplomatic presence in Iran since the hostage crisis in 1979, and Iranians have to go to Dubai to get US visas.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZIMBABWE DISTRIBUTES FOOD HAMPERS !

Zimbabwe's government is to distribute cheap food hampers to help people deal with inflation of 2,200,000%.
Basic products to last a family of six for a month will cost Z$100bn, the current cost of a loaf of bread, the state-run Herald newspaper reports.
It was launched by President Robert Mugabe who was re-elected last month in a controversial one-man race.
Meanwhile, a deal on pre-conditions for power-sharing talks is expected, but so far the opposition has not signed it.
"It is not that we are refusing to sign, but that the processes need to be tightened," opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai told South Africa's Star newspaper.

PRE-CONDITIONS FOR TALKS
MDC:
End to political violence
Release of supporters
Resumption of aid
Permanent AU envoy
Swearing in of MPs

Diary: Circus leaves town

The African Union has urged that a unity government be formed after Mr Tsvangirai pulled out of June's run-off election, citing state-run violence.
South Africa President Thabo Mbeki, who has been leading mediation efforts, had been expected in Harare on Wednesday for the signing.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has said that it will only consider going into talks with Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party on forming a unity government if there is an end to political violence and the release of its supporters from prison.
The MDC says 113 of its supporters have been killed, some 5,000 are missing and more than 200,000 have been forced from their homes since the first round of voting in March.

Zimbabweans are suffering chronic shortages of meat, maize, fuel and other basic commodities and most shops are empty because of a price-control policy implemented by the government a year ago.
On Wednesday, it was announced that Zimbabwe's annual rate of inflation has surged to 2,200,000%.
After the March election, the government ban non-governmental organisations but then lifted a ban on aid agencies which distribute food and Aids treatment.
However, the opposition claimed food aid is not being given out in opposition areas.
The food hampers are intended to reach all households, the Herald reports.
It says it will contain items such as cooking oil, soap, flour and maize meal and those that cannot afford the hamper in rural areas would be able to arrange to pay at a later date.
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step," central bank governor Gideon Gono said at the launch of the hamper scheme.
"So this is but one step that we have taken as we implement strategies to improve the lives of our people."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

EBAY SEES DIFFICULT TIMES AHEAD !

Online auction site eBay has warned that sales will be lower than expected in the current quarter as it struggles against a weakening global economy.
The caution came as eBay posted a rise in net income of $460m (£230.2m) over the past three months to June, from $376m a year earlier.
But investors were disappointed by the firm's prudent outlook, with full-year projections kept unchanged.
The US firm is also battling against trust problems among its users.
Earlier this year, it overhauled its feedback system, banning sellers from leaving negative comments about buyers.
It is currently appealing against a ruling from a French court ordering it to pay 40m euros to luxury goods giant LVMH, which owns the Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior brands, for allowing online auctions of fake copies of its goods.
Attracting users to its shopping sites is also proving to be difficult.
eBay said the number of new active users rose by 1% during the quarter from a year earlier, even as listings increased by 19%.
"It's ancient history now, but in past years, investors knew eBay would start out each year conservatively and raise their outlook more and more as each quarter went by," Global Crown Capital analyst Martin Pyykkonen said.
"What eBay is saying now is, 'We don't want to go out on a limb,'" Mr Pyykkonen said. "The economy is working against them."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

THOUSANDS FLEE NIGERIAN MILITANTS !

Thousands of Nigerians have fled the Niger Delta oil town of Bonny after militants threatened to behead people who are not originally from the area.
The unknown group attacked soldiers in the town two weeks ago, killing nine people including a pregnant woman.
According to a newspaper article widely circulated by residents, the militants said they would return on July 16.
Bonny Island is home to a major oil and gas export terminal but production has not been affected.
Meanwhile, a militant attack in the Bonny Island area has left five people dead, the AP news agency reports.
About 30 militants attacked a Navy houseboat and three militants, a navy officer and civilian were killed, said Col Chris Musa.

In Bonny, youth leader Kingsley Adonis Pepple said people took the militant's threat seriously.
"They were handing out copies of this article to people in the street. There was panic. People packed up their entire family into a boat and fled."
Several boats had capsized and people drowned, he said, although there is no confirmation of this.
Mr Adonis Pepple said all the known militant groups in the area had denied issuing any threats.
He tried to tell people but they weren't taking any chances, he said.
The article said unnamed sources reported the militants' demand.
"Another source said that the hoodlums, after the face-off with the navy, entered town, shooting and giving ultimatum that all residents of the town who were from other places should leave the town before July 16 or risk being beheaded," the national Nigerian Tribune paper said.
The article was sent to many people in Bonny by family members begging them to get out before the deadline, Mr Adonis Pepple said.

Bonny is a city of over 100,000 people, many of whom work in the oil industry.
The new multi-million dollar Liquefied Natural Gas export terminal is nearby.
Shell announced on Tuesday that a pipeline leading to Bonny Island, attacked by militants two months ago, had been repaired and production resumed.
Militant attacks on oil infrastructure are partly responsible for Nigeria's oil exports being cut by around a quarter in recent years.
Militants have also kidnapped oil workers for ransom.
Some groups are demanding a larger share of the oil wealth, but others are criminal gangs who make a living from extortion and oil theft, Delta activists say.
British aid
Nigeria has seen several "communal crises" in recent years, in which one ethnic group attacks another seen as being "non-indigenous" to the area.
Hundreds of people were killed in Plateau state in 2004 in clashes between Christian militias and Hausa Muslims.
President Umaru Yar'Adua is meeting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London to discuss security issues in the oil-producing Niger Delta.
Mr Brown recently offered to help Nigeria bring an end to the violence and increase oil production.
Many in the region are afraid Mr Brown means to send military aid to the Delta.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

STAND-OFF AT BEIJING 'NAIL HOUSE' !

By Michael Bristow - BBC News, Beijing.

A Beijing family are refusing to move from their city centre home, despite a court order threatening to throw them out.
Family members say they are not being offered enough compensation for the home they bought 60 years ago.
Their campaign is attracting large crowds, who gather at the tumble-down shack in the heart of historic Beijing. It could pose a problem for officials, who want to avoid embarrassing incidents ahead of the Olympic Games.
Yu Pingju, one of 14 family members who live in the house, said it was bought before the Communists took power in China in 1949.
Until recently, it was also the family's workplace; they sold roast chestnuts, peanuts and other snacks from the roadside home.

But then they were told to move as part of a plan to tidy up the neighbourhood, which is near many of the city's main tourist attractions.
All other residents appear to have moved on, allowing the area to be spruced up. But the Yus refused to accept the 340,000 yuan ($49,900, £24,800) compensation.
"In Beijing you can't even buy something the size of a toilet for that," said 40-year-old Ms Yu, as she stood with her arms folded outside her home.
Officials who administer the district have obtained a court order, which says the family had to move out by 13 July. But they are still there.
"I'm not going - I've got nowhere to go to. We are going to defend our house with our lives," said Ms Yu.

The Yus' Beijing home is one of many "nail houses" that have sprung up over China, particularly since the introduction of a property law last year.
These are homes whose owners have refused to leave to make way for redevelopment.
As part of their campaign, the family have plastered their shack with flags and slogans. One says simply: "This is my home."

They have also put up posters of Chinese leaders because they believe they could help them resolve the issue.
"If they knew about this problem, they would look after us. They would care and sympathise with us," said Ms Yu.
The colourful home has now become something of an attraction, grabbing the attention of passers-by and those who live in the district.
One local said: "In Beijing, house demolition often ends up with forced eviction. Ordinary people don't have a say."
This poses a problem for Beijing officials, who will want to resolve the issue without being too heavy-handed.
A digger stands nearby to clear away the home, but officials will be loath to use it unless the family can be persuaded to leave peacefully.
Meng Qingli, a local official, said the local government was aware of the situation and was trying to resolve it.
"Our principle is to put people first," said Mr Meng.
Separately on Wednesday, Chinese state media said the central government had told local officials to be more responsive to complaints from ordinary people.
There have been a number of major protests in China over recent weeks, protests that Beijing officials do not want to see happening.
They seem particularly worried about public displays of anger while the eyes of the world are on China during the Olympic Games.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

40 YEARS OLDER THAN HIS REAL AGE !

By Sarah Wood - Series producer, BBC Three.

Earlier this year a good night out for Stewart Burton might have started on a Saturday afternoon in his home town of Brighton and could easily have carried on for 18 hours, well into Sunday.
Stewart, 25, would get through up to 60 cigarettes, down nine bottles of beer, followed by several shots and more beer. He would also dabble in drugs.
That was a good night out for Stewart - but he was starting to notice his lifestyle was having a detrimental impact on his body.
He wasn't as fit as he used to be and he often shunned the healthy food in his fridge for yet another take-away.
Stewart was often drinking more than 100 units of booze a week - the government recommends men should drink no more than 21 units.
And when Stewart got drunk, those around him felt he became a different person.
Stewart thought he was indestructible.

His mother, April, said: "He is a demon. He becomes evil - and it all starts when he starts drinking."
Stewart's lifestyle was also starting to take its toll on his relationship with his live-in girlfriend Donella.
She had given him an ultimatum: "Stu needs to clean up his act. He needs to cut back on his drinking.
"If he doesn't do that, then I will have to seriously review the situation of our relationship, because he is going to lose everything if he doesn't stop."
With his relationship on a knife-edge, Stewart put himself forward for Make My Body Younger's "living autopsy".

Every inch of Stewart's body was examined and his vital organs were tested.
He even had a fertility test, though he felt confident about the outcome.
"I know I've got no problems," he said.
"I've got a daughter already. I know everything is working properly."
At his "living autopsy", Stewart was laid out and the first "incision" was made in front of girlfriend Donella, Stewart's mother and his brothers.
It was a demanding and emotional time for all involved as presenter George Lamb and Dr Andrew Curran revealed Stewart's results.
One of the most shocking moments for Stewart, Donella and his family was when his brain age was revealed, following a series of cognitive function tests.
Stewart is only 25 but all his hardcore partying resulted in a brain age of 68.
Donella's shock at him "having the brain of a pensioner" was something his entire family shared.

But for Stewart the greatest surprise was the state of his sperm.
Due to his excessive partying lifestyle, Stewart's fertility test showed his sperm had 91% deformed heads.
This left a serious question mark over his fertility as normal fertility allows for less than 70% deformed heads.
Stewart was left stunned by the news. "The sperm one was shocking, really bad," he said. "I was close to tears."
Back at home in Brighton, the surprises didn't end for Stewart.
He got his very own live-in medic in the shape of Dr Leanne Hayward.
She moved in with Donella and Stewart for three days and gave Stewart valuable information about how to live his life differently - but without having to become a party-free zone.
New start
Stewart initially wanted to stop drinking and smoking altogether but this concerned Dr Hayward.
"We need to be really careful with Stewart that he doesn't totally stop everything because he could run into more problems," she said.
"He may be more likely to fall off the wagon if he tries to cut out absolutely everything."
Stewart and Donella found the early days a struggle and had a few rows.
But slowly Stewart started to feel the benefits of not drinking or smoking as much.
After several weeks, he went back to London for tests to find out the new biological ages of his key organs and the state of his sperm.
Because of Stewart's improved lifestyle his new brain age came in at 18 years, a massive drop and a testament to his hard work.
But probably the best news for Stewart and Donella was that his fertility test results showed the level of deformity of his sperm was back within the normal range.
Stewart was relieved by the results: "All the hard work has definitely paid off."
Donella too was delighted. "I've got my dream guy," she said. "Hopefully we will have a really long and happy future together."

Make My Body Younger is on BBC Three on Wednesday 16 July at 8pm and for seven days at BBC iPlayer.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

BETANCOURT RESCUER WORE RED CROSS !

Colombia's president says a Red Cross symbol was worn by a member of the military rescue mission that freed 15 hostages from leftist Farc rebels.
President Alvaro Uribe said his government had apologised to the Red Cross for the incident.
Misuse of the Red Cross emblem is against the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law.
Rescuers tricked rebels into releasing Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages by posing as international aid workers.
President Uribe's admission followed reports that the Red Cross emblem had being displayed on clothing worn by several Colombian intelligence officers who carried out the rescue.
Mr Uribe insisted that just one member of the team had sported the emblem.
"We regret that this occurred," said Mr Uribe.
Falsely portraying military personnel as Red Cross workers is against the Geneva Conventions because it could put humanitarian workers at risk as they carry out missions in war zones.
It also undermines the neutrality of the Red Cross.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

U.S. INFLATION RATE AT 26-YEAR HIGH !

US inflation accelerated at the fastest rate in 26 years in June, fuelled higher by surging energy prices, official figures have shown.
Consumer prices rose by 1.1% in June, the Labor Department said, more than the 0.7% many analysts had expected.
Federal Reserve boss Ben Bernanke said on Tuesday that the threat of rising inflation had intensified recently.
High inflation will make it harder for the Fed to cut rates and boost an economy hurt by a housing market slump.
The Fed chairman, who faces his second day of congressional testimony on Wednesday, also warned about the "downside" risks to growth in the world's largest economy.
Many analysts now believe that the central bank may have to leave borrowing costs on hold as it tries to steer a faltering economy through turbulent times.
"There is so much uncertainty in the market right now that news of higher inflation doesn't mean a rise in interest rates," said Stephen Malyon, analyst at Scotia Capital in Toronto.
The US faces a severe housing slump, a credit crunch and financial market turmoil stemming from the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market.
The impact of surging living costs in June "really puts the Fed in a hole," said Alan Ruskin, an economist at RBS Greenwich.
Gary Thayer of Wachovia Securities agreed that the Fed was facing a tricky balancing act.
"This increases concern that the Fed is not going to be able to lower interest rates if the economy remains weak," he explained.
"And as long as the economy remains weak, it will be hard for the Fed to raise rates to fight inflation."
On annual basis, prices were 5% higher when compared with June 2007, the Labor Department said.

Energy prices were the main driver of price growth, and were 6.6% higher in June as the cost of petrol, natural gas and heating oil increased.
Expectations that that a slowing US economy will dampen demand for oil helped crude prices drop 42 cents to $138.32 in pre-market trade in New York.
The annual core inflation rate, which strips out volatile fuel and food prices, was 2.4%.
The surge in living costs has also dented the earning power of Americans.
Average weekly wages, after adjusting for inflation, fell by 0.9% in June - the biggest monthly decline in 24 years, the Department said.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZIMBABWE INFLATION AT 2,200,000%

Zimbabwe's annual rate of inflation has surged to 2,200,000%, official figures have shown.
The figure is the first official assessment of prices in the troubled African nation since February, when the rate of inflation stood at 165,000%.
Zimbabwe, once one of the richest countries in Africa, has descended into economic chaos largely blamed on the policies of President Robert Mugabe.
Mr Mugabe was re-elected last month in a controversial one-man race.
The opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), pulled out of the run-off election, saying its supporters were being attacked and killed.

This situation is not sustainable. There's going to be some sort of implosion -Rejoice Ngwenya, economist.

Zimbabwe 'getting worse'

Rising costs are forcing retailers to increase prices a number of times a day for goods purchased with billion dollar bank notes and the number of people falling into poverty is on the rise.
In May, the central bank issued a 500m Zimbabwe dollar banknote, worth US$2 at the time of issue, to try to ease cash shortages amid the world's highest rate of inflation.
This is in stark contrast with the situation at independence in 1980 when one Zimbabwe dollar was worth more than US$1.
Mr Mugabe denies that he is ruining the economy, laying the blame on international sanctions he says have been imposed against Zimbabwe.
The US and the EU have imposed targeted sanctions, such as a travel ban and an assets freeze, on Mr Mugabe and his close allies.

"SAYINGS" !

"YOU ALWAYS PASS FAILURE

ON THE WAY TO SUCCESS" !

_______

CHINA GETS IVORY IMPORTS GO-AHEAD !

The UN has given China the green light to bid in a one-off sale of ivory.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) voted in favour of China's request during a meeting being held in Geneva.
China joins Japan as approved buyers of government-owned ivory from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
In 2007, Cities authorised the four nations to sell off stockpiles of legally held elephant ivory.
In order to gain approval, China had to present evidence to members of the Cites standing committee that it had put in place measures to tackle any illegal domestic sales of ivory.
"China has acted rather successfully against its own illegal domestic ivory market," said Tom Milliken, a director for Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network.
"Now China should help other countries to do the same, especially in central Africa where elephant poaching is rampant."
But Robbie Marsland, UK director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw), condemned the decision, saying it could prove disastrous for the world's elephant populations.
"We are deeply disappointed that Cites has backed China as an ivory buyer, a decision that plays Russian roulette with wild elephants.
"Allowing new ivory to be imported into China will stimulate demand and create a smokescreen for illegal ivory to be laundered into the legal market, to be sold in stores or online to Chinese citizens or foreigners."
However, Mr Milliken said Cites monitoring systems would track whether the sale would lead to an increase in illegal ivory.
"Following the last one-off ivory sale under CITES in 1999, it is encouraging to note that the illicit trade in ivory progressively declined over the next five years," he explained.
"We hope a similar result is achieved this time."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

GLOOMY MOOD IN POST-POLL ZIMBABWE !

By Brian Hungwe - Harare.

Fear still exists in the Zimbabwean countryside, even though the presidential election has been and gone.
Many villagers are still hiding in the bush and mountains, their hopes of a return to peace fading with reports of continuing intimidation.
Over the last few months, many suspected opposition supporters have had their homes torched.
Goats, chickens and cows - symbols of wealth in the rural areas - were taken away to feed ruling party militia at their party bases.
Villagers say the youth militia wearing ruly party T-shirts and bandanas showing President Robert Mugabe's face, are still roaming free and attacking with impunity.
Although talks are under way between the ruling Zanu-PF and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), in rural areas where there are few radios, that has little consequence.
"The militia are telling us that during the elections they 'chopped tree branches', now they say 'it's time to uproot them'," says Muchadei (not his real name) an electoral officer in Mashonaland Central, an area hit hard by the electoral violence.
The MDC says 113 of its supporters have been killed, some 5,000 are missing and more than 200,000 people have been forced from their homes since the first round of voting in March.

"The militia say they want to attack and remove all pockets of resistance," Muchadei says, referring to MDC voters.
The situation has not changed at all in the province since Robert Mugabe was sworn-in again as president, he says.
"People still can't express themselves freely. Others are missing. It's not clear if they are dead or alive," he says.
Church leaders say they "are saddened by reports of continued violence two weeks after presidential run-off".
In parts of Harare's townships, however, the police have been attacking the ruling-party militia and destroying their bases.
This has meant that hundreds of Zanu PF militias have now lost their livelihoods and police have confirmed that some of the militia are now transforming themselves into criminal gangs.
But the crackdown has come as a huge relief to those living in the townships, where many residents had been forced for "re-education" at Zanu-PF bases.
"I need peace of mind, I was leaving work early out of fear of victimisation," says a resident of Kuwadzana township.
She says queuing for bread every morning together with the cost of travelling into neighbouring South Africa and Botswana to buy food are already enough of a burden.
Inflation, which officially stands at 165,000%, is thought to be well into seven figures now.
The long wait
Thousands of people are trying to find alternative ways of making a living because the manufacturing industry has shrunk by around 60%.
As long as Mugabe is in power, nothing changes
Richie, currency dealer
Harare's central Fourth Street and Chinhoyi Street are now packed with dealers trading in foreign currency on the black market.
One of them is Richie who told me he had given up his job at a state-run company to join them.
"Salaries are eroded by inflation every day, there is no point in working, you just have to work for yourself now," he said.
The talks between Zanu-PF and the MDC mean nothing to him.
"As long as Mugabe is in power, nothing changes. It will take time for things to normalise given that the old man has no intention of giving up power," Richie told me.
"He has created a mess, and we will be in this mess for a long long time."
Despite this, he still believes it is not a situation that can last forever.
"One day the situation will stabilise, maybe I will get a job in a bank and have a normal working life again."
Talks between the two parties are going on behind closed doors, and no-one in Harare really knows what is going on.
Rumour that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been co-opted into a government of national unity abound in townships, but few believe that.
Most people simply want life to return to normal and have few kind words for President Mugabe.
A special one-hour programme of BBC Focus on Africa exploring the political, economic and social prospects for Zimbabwe will be broadcast on Tuesday 15 July at 1500 GMT on the BBC World Service.

WORLD'S RICHEST BROTHERS FEUD AGAIN !

By Shantanu Guha Ray, Delhi.

They are the world's richest brothers with a combined wealth of $85bn - and they are fighting again.
Two years ago, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani, who control India's Reliance group of industries, accused each other of lying, misleading shareholders and delaying the process of dividing the businesses between them.
The latest rivalry between chief of Reliance Communications Anil Ambani and his elder brother Mukesh could upset a $70bn (£36bn;45bn euros) merger between Reliance Communications and the South African mobile telephone company, MTN.
There have been suggestions that Anil Ambani would sell a stake in Reliance Communications to MTN.
But Mukesh Ambani, India's richest man, says he has the first right to buy a stake in his younger brother's firm.
He says this is laid down in a family agreement. Anil Ambani says the agreement was never ratified.

India's corporate observers say central to the fresh round of rivalry is the issue of wealth and one-upmanship between the two brothers.
In the Forbes list of billionaires, Mukesh Ambani holds the sixth position, followed by Anil Ambani.
Anil Ambani's personal wealth stands at $42bn, just $1bn short of his elder brother's. And if the MTN deal goes through, he may well leave his brother way behind.
When the Reliance empire was divided in 2005 after a bitter seven-month feud, Mukesh Ambani, who built the world's largest refinery at Jamnagar in India's western Gujarat state, was described in the media as the hard-working son whose worth was thrice than of his flashy younger brother.
Newsweek magazine quoted his employees calling Mukesh, The Boss, who reportedly bought his wife a Boeing jet as birthday present and is building a $1bn, 27-storey home in Mumbai that many claim is the world's most expensive house.
Younger brother Anil Ambani has not lagged behind. A vegetarian and teetotaller, his Reliance Communications is one of India's top telecom companies.
The junior Ambani has expanded his energy interests through Reliance Energy that distributes power in parts of the Indian capital, Delhi, and Mumbai.
And his media company, Reliance Big Entertainment, has announced production deals with Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Nicolas Cage. One recent report said Anil Ambani was putting his money in Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks.
Anil Ambani has recently signed a mega deal to fund new ventures with some of India's biggest actors, Amitabh Bachchan, his son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai.
The two brothers inherited their multi-billion dollar conglomerates from their father, Dhirubhai Ambani, who died in 2002.
Since the late Mr Ambani left no will, the business was divided by their mother, Mrs Kokilaben Ambani, after it became obvious the two brothers would not be able to run the sprawling company together.
So will Mrs Ambani step in again to resolve the latest dispute between her sons?
Earlier this month, she helped her younger son host a dinner at Christie's and sat next to MTN chairman Phuthuma Nhleko - widely interpreted as her blessing for the deal.
Observers say she visited family friends in the US and skipped the elder son-controlled Reliance Industries' annual general meeting.
Time will tell whether she will intervene again to solve the latest row between what the Indian media describes as the "squabbling siblings".
The writer is business editor of Tehelka magazine.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

S.S. DOCTOR 'STILL ALIVE IN CHILE' !

Efraim Zuroff is hoping Aribert Heim will be found in the next few weeks.
Former SS doctor Aribert Heim is still likely to be alive in Chile, said a director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre at the end of a five-day mission.
Efraim Zuroff said he was convinced people knowing the whereabouts of the 94-year-old Nazi could be found.
"A person this age cannot live on his own," said Mr Zuroff.
Heim tortured and killed prisoners in Mauthausen concentration camp in World War II, but fled Germany in 1962 before authorities were able to arrest him.
He performed operations and amputations without anaesthetic, and injected victims straight into the heart with petrol, water or poison.
Speaking in Bariloche in southern Argentina, Mr Zuroff said: "There is no evidence that he is dead, but, to the contrary, there are numerous leads that he could be alive."

Heim is accused of killing Jews using exceptionally cruel methods
He said the key to finding Heim was the fact that his daughter, Waltraud Diharce, lives in the Chilean town of Puerto Montt.
"From there he travelled to Bariloche 50 times in one year, " said Mr Zuroff.
He also noted that no one has claimed any of the investments or the multi-million dollar bank account in Heim's name - something which require proof that Heim was dead.
Mr Zuroff said that the groundwork had been laid for Heim's capture "in the next few weeks - or at the most, months".
A reward of $495,000 is being offered by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and the German and Austrian governments.
Mr Zuroff, who heads the centre's office in Jerusalem, said he had been favourably surprised by how much the Argentine government had been supporting the investigation.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

PROTEST KITS FOR AUSSIE ATHLETES !

Protest kits for Aussie athletes

The pack contains transfers of the red, blue and gold Tibetan flag
A campaign group in Australia is offering Olympics athletes and supporters a protest kit to highlight their concerns over Tibet.
The pack includes a T-shirt bearing the words "I support human rights" in English and Chinese, badges, stickers and temporary tattoos of Tibet's flag.
The T-shirt slogan was specially chosen to avoid making explicit reference to Tibet and contravening Olympic rules.
But backers admit that those using the kit may still "face consequences".
In March, Chinese authorities suppressed the biggest protests against Chinese rule in Tibet in two decades.
Many campaigners for Tibetan independence have used China's hosting of the Olympic Games as a platform to publicise their cause.
Risks
"Going right back to March, people have been approaching us and asking how they can help Tibet in Beijing," Simon Bradshaw, campaign co-ordinator for the Australia Tibet Council (ATC), told Reuters news agency.
But he warned that the packs could be confiscated by Chinese authorities at the airport, or could contravene Australian Olympic Committee rules and be barred from the Olympic village.
There is "no doubt that athletes who choose to make public statements over Tibet may face consequences", he said.
Launching the packs on Monday, former Olympic swimmer Michelle Engelsman said that whether athletes decided to speak out at the Games was up to them.
"It is important to bear in mind that the athletes also have the right to focus on their sport," she said.
But she said she hoped that athletes might choose to use the protest items - available on request and in confidence from the ATC - once they had finished competing.
A spokesman for the Australian Olympic Committee, Mike Tancred, told AP news agency that his organisation recommended that no athlete travelling to China take the kit in case the contents "antagonised" other competitors.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

EDIBLE BOAT RACE READY TO LAUNCH !

The edible boats will be floated at Eyemouth beach.
Preparations are under way for what is believed to be the UK's first edible boat race later this month.
The event will be held at Eyemouth beach in the Scottish Borders with the winning boat being the one which manages to float the longest.
The competition is open to all ages but all the vessels must be made entirely out of edible materials.
The event is backed by Eyemouth Herring Queen Committee and the St Abb's and Eyemouth Voluntary Marine Reserve.
The seafaring challenge takes place on 23 July.
Liza Cole, National Trust for Scotland ranger for the marine reserve, explained how the surprising idea had come about.
I have put the word out with all my contacts around the country and as far as I am aware there has never been a boat race of this kind before - Liza Cole, National Trust Ranger
She was approached by the organisers of Eyemouth's annual celebration - the Herring Queen Festival - to discuss the possibility of a paper boat release.
Ms Cole said: "I was really pleased that the committee had thought laterally rather than just going for a balloon release, as these result in burst balloons littering our beaches and choking marine wildlife.
"However, I had reservations as paper only biodegrades in seawater very slowly, and I had visions of incoming tides of papier-mache.
"So, it was my turn to think laterally, and that's when I came up with the idea of an edible boat race."
She said she believed the event was the first of its type.
"I have put the word out with all my contacts around the country and as far as I am aware there has never been a boat race of this kind before," she said.
"So we will be making history as well as having a bit of ecologically-friendly fun."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

TURKEY CHARGES 86 FOR 'COUP PLOT' !

Some Turks believe their government is a threat to secular values.
A top Turkish prosecutor has brought charges against 86 people allegedly involved in a coup plot.
Aykut Cengiz Engin said those charged included leading figures from the army, business and the secular press.
The charges follow speculation about a shadowy group of hardline nationalists determined to act in what they see as defence of Turkey's secular values.
Tensions have been rising in Turkey amid efforts to close the ruling party over alleged anti-secular activities.
The Constitutional Court is considering a case against the AK Party, in which it is accused of aiming to introduce Sharia law in Turkey, in contravention of the strictly secular constitution.
The Turkish prime minister and president - both AKP members - are named in that case and could be barred from office. They and the party reject the charges, which they say are part of a campaign against the party.

On Monday prosecutor Mr Engin filed charges at an Istanbul court against 86 people, 48 of whom are already in custody.
In the current highly-charged political atmosphere, many think it is no coincidence the two cases are running in tandem -Roger Hardy, BBC Middle East analyst.

Court battles divide Turkey

"The indictment covers crimes such as forming an armed terror group... and attempting to overthrow the government by force," Mr Engin said.
A court must decide within two weeks whether to open the case against the 86 suspects.
They are accused of plotting to create chaos in Turkey, provoking secularist anger and a military coup that would topple the government.
The indictment referred to the killing of a judge in a 2006 armed attack on a court, and the bombing of a secularist newspaper.
There have been several coups by the Turkish military, which sees itself as the ultimate guardian of the country's secular values.
Some secularists believe the AK Party, many of whose members are former Islamists, is intent on installing Islamism in Turkey. They say the AKP's moves to overturn a ban on the Islamic headscarf at universities is evidence of this.

Dozens of suspects have been arrested over the past year, following the discovery of a cache of hand grenades at the house of a retired army officer.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised to crack down on the so-called Ergenekon group - an alleged "deep state" network of renegade ultra-nationalists from the military, police, business and press.
Prosecutor Engin said the 86 charged on Monday include at least one former general, along with journalists, academicians and businessmen.
He said an additional indictment was being prepared against a dozen others, including two senior retired generals arrested earlier this month.
Critics of the government accuse it of using the investigation to suppress some of its most vocal opponents.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

OBAMA TEAM DECRY SATIRICAL IMAGE !

The magazine said the image "combines... fantastical images".
Barack Obama's team has decried The New Yorker magazine for a cartoon cover depicting him in traditional Muslim garb and his wife as a terrorist.
The magazine says the cartoon is intended as a satirical comment about some of the distorted right-wing attacks on the Democratic senator.
An Obama campaign spokesman said the cartoon was "tasteless and offensive".
A spokesman for John McCain, Mr Obama's Republican rival in the presidential election, also criticised the cartoon.
The image, drawn by Barry Blitt and featured on the front cover of this week's New Yorker, shows Mr Obama wearing traditional Muslim dress, while his wife, Michelle, is dressed in combat trousers and carrying a machine-gun.
The couple are shown standing in the Oval Office, greeting one another with a "fist bump", with an American flag burning in the fireplace, and a portrait of Osama Bin Laden on the wall.

In a statement, The New Yorker magazine said the cartoon "combines a number of fantastical images about the Obamas and shows them for the obvious distortions they are."
The New Yorker said the cover, called "The Politics of Fear", was a critique of unfounded allegations that have tried to portray Mr Obama, a Christian, as a closet radical Muslim.
"The burning flag, the nationalist-radical and Islamic outfits, the fist-bump, the portrait on the wall? All of them echo one attack or another. Satire is part of what we do, and it is meant to bring things out into the open, to hold up a mirror to prejudice, the hateful, and the absurd. And that's the spirit of this cover," the statement said.
The portrayal of the Obamas "fist-bumping" one another was a reference to a campaign rally in St Paul, Minnesota, back in June, at which the couple were seen to "fist-bump", an action described by one Fox News commentator as a "terrorist fist-jab".
The presenter - E D Hill who subsequently lost her Fox News show - later apologised for the comments, and insisted that they had not been meant seriously.
The New Yorker said that this week's edition carried two "very serious" articles about Mr Obama.
But Obama spokesman Bill Burton dismissed the cartoon, saying: ""The New Yorker may think... that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create, but most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

BEIJING UNVEILS NEW TRAFFIC CURBS !

Officials wants to get some of Beijing's 3.3 million vehicles off its streets.
Beijing authorities have ordered firms, shops and other organisations to stagger work times to cut traffic volumes during the Olympics.
City officials say state-run businesses should not start work until 0900 - up to an hour later than usual.
They are also encouraging as many people as possible to work from home.
These are just some of the measures being introduced during the Olympics to cut vehicle numbers on the capital's clogged roads.
According to the new rules, government departments, organisations providing essential services and schools will operate as normal.
But large shopping centres will have to open and close later between 20 July and 20 September, after the end of the Paralympics.
Other institutions will also have to adjust clock-on and clock-off times.
Workers are being encouraged to work online if possible and arrange flexible working hours, according to the city government notice.
More measures to reduce the number of vehicles on Beijing's roads come into effect on 20 July.
From that date, individual cars will be allowed on the roads only on alternate days.

Your pictures: Beijing's skies

This measure is also aimed at cutting the city's notoriously bad air pollution during the Olympics and Paralympics.
There are other temporary restrictions to clean up the air.
Beijing Shougang Group, one of the capital's top polluters, announced it will cut production, and so pollution, by 70% over the next few months.
The company is in the process of moving its massive Beijing operation to neighbouring Hebei Province.
Shougang has now extinguished three of its four remaining blast furnaces in Beijing, according to state-run Xinhua news agency.
Other factories in nearby provinces have also cut production or closed temporarily to ensure clear skies above Beijing during the Olympics.
Air pollution remains a pressing problem, just weeks before the start of the Games on 8 August.
The International Olympic Committee says it could postpone endurance events of more than one hour on days when the pollution is too bad.
The capital's air remained smoggy and grey on Monday, even though the Beijing government claimed it was a "blue sky" day.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

PEOPLE THIS WEEK!

Your catch-up service for those celebrities and well-known personalities to have inhabited interview chairs for the media over the past seven days.

NAME: Diana Rigg INTERVIEWED BY: Nigel Farndale, Sunday Telegraph PROMOTING: No products, but believes in a bottle of wine before bed.

She's fossilised in TV history as Emma Peel, though she only did the role for two years out of a long career. Deconstructing her iconic Avenger look, Ms Rigg, 70, reveals it took 45 nightmarish minutes to get the leather catsuit off. And the pre-Lycra jersey catsuits suffered constant baggy knees. Fame should have been more fun, she reflects. Not in a naughty way, but "Why didn't I have more confidence? Why didn't I know I was pretty good looking?" She thinks it was her Yorkshire upbringing that knocked any vanity out of her. Her experience of fame sounds quaint and unsophisticated: hiding in public toilets from fans and getting her mum to write back to letters - adopting that Yorkshire style for the ruder ones: "Those aren't very nice thoughts. And besides, my daughter is too old for you. I suggest you take a run around the block."

NAME: James McAvoy INTERVIEWED BY: Gabrielle Donnelly, Daily Mail. WeekendPROMOTING: Wanted The Mail makes much of James being "disappointingly short" and pale - but women across the country can only see his fanciability.

"I'm not 6'4" and I don't have huge pectoral muscles that open doors three feet ahead of the rest of me. It's nice that they're letting someone a bit unconventional make movies." This "someone unconventional" lives in the same flat he did before, and drives a Nissan Micra. All very low key for a Hollywood star, but he considers himself privileged. Coming from Drumchapel in Glasgow, he says "I used to have a bit of a working class chip on my shoulder, because the area I come from is so rough. But then I went to Uganda to make The Last King Of Scotland and I looked around at the poverty there, and I realised that in relative world terms, I'm actually super duper, upper class, through the roof posh."

NAME: Alexa Chung INTERVIEWED BY: Eva Wiseman, Observer Woman PROMOTING: Gok's Fashion Fix.

It's important you know about her because the Observer has her down as the number one cool person in the Who's Cool Now? Top 50. Even they can't explain how her cool remains intact when her career has gone from C4's edgy show Popworld to presenting some TV turkeys: Get A Grip and Vanity Lair.
Dating the Arctic Monkeys' lead singer must help a bit, and the fash mags love her style but it's her sharp attitude to female fame that gets her the number one spot: "I don't want to look sexy in photographs. I think it's an easy option. I'm sick of girls pushing their boobs up in MySpace photographs. I hate the way women want to be 'hot' all time. And I'm on youth TV so I want to be a different kind of role model. One who's properly covered up.'"

NAME: Mark Ronson INTERVIEWED BY: Alan Jackson, Times magazine PROMOTING: No products, just slickness and family values.

The uber music producer is such the man about town that during the interview he delivers his sister a Chanel handbag that Lily Allen had reserved for him. The suit he's wearing to the Glamour Awards (Man of the Year, obviously) is "almost in homage" to Dean Martin. It's a life that Heat readers can only dream of, says The Times. With his looks and success he must indulge in a love life that would also impress Heat's readership? "Let's just say there's enough chaos in my life and I prefer being by myself or being with just one person," he says. Albeit the "just one person" is model Daisy Lowe, how come he is so sensible? His mum, he says. She made him work summer jobs and come home at 9.30pm when his friends were out till midnight. He's grateful now for not turning out like an idiot, but the teenage Mark didn't sound the same way: "She's such a hard-arse! She sucks!"

NAME: Sharleen Spiteri INTERVIEWED BY: Sheryl Garratt, Telegraph magazine PROMOTING: Solo album, Melody

We can't all write hits, but Sharleen describes a feeling when songwriting comes together that we do know: "It's like when you were a kid and and you used to run up school corridors: that slight fear of getting caught, but excitement at the same time. It's like you almost don't want to say it to anyone." She also didn't want to say to Texas, her band of 22 years, quite how she felt after splitting from the father of her child after 10 years: "Because they're my mates… I didn't want them to see my weaknesses." So she made this record alone. One friend she can let loose with is comedian Peter Kay: who she divulges recently led a conga round her kitchen to Mr Blue Sky. And she took his advice to include the track Day Tripping after she'd decided to leave it off the album. He was laid out on her settee with a cup of tea: "Are you deaf? That's never a B-side!"

BBC NEWS MAGAZINE

10 THINGS

10 things we didn't know last week !

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

1. A monsoon is a wind, rather than rain.
More details

2. More than 12,000 laptops a week go missing at US airports.
More details (the Guardian)

3. Synod is pronounced SIN-uhd, and Sentamu (as in John) is pronounced with a stress on the first syllable - SENT-uh-moo.More details

4. Women with large breasts pay more for their bras at Marks & Spencer than their smaller chested counterparts.More details

5. Some slugs are carnivores, and have razor-sharp teeth.
More details

6. The average UK household bins £8-worth of leftovers a week.
More details

7. Pears sink while apples float.
More details

8. One in 20 of Britain's population will attend a summer festival.
More details

9. One in three tickets sold at London theatres are for musicals.
More details

10. Whipping someone until they bleed - even if they encourage it - is a criminal offence.
More details
BBC NEWS MAGAZINE.

"SAYINGS" !

"THE MAIN THING IS TO MAKE HISTORY,

NOT TO WRITE IT" !

_______

PYONGYANG CRITICISED OVER KILLING !

Seoul has complained that North Korea is failing to co-operate with an investigation into the killing of a South Korean tourist.
Park Wang-ja was shot dead by a North Korean soldier in a special tourism zone in the mountains of the communist state on Friday morning.
Hundreds of South Korean tourists have since vacated the mountain resort, just north of the heavily fortified border.
South Korea said trips to the area would be suspended pending an inquiry.
President Lee Myung-bak requested Pyongyang's help in investigating the shooting.
But a spokesman for South Korea's Unification Ministry - which is responsible for bilateral relations between the states - complained North Korean officials had not shown any "active response" to the request.

Ms Park, 53, is said to have strayed into a fenced-off military area in the Mount Kumgang resort on the east coast in the pre-dawn hours of Friday morning.
She failed to heed a warning, and was shot dead, North Korean officials said.
Her body has been returned to South Korea, where it is undergoing forensic examination.
The killing has overshadowed an earlier announcement by Lee Myung-bak that he wanted to re-open the stalled dialogue with North Korea.
Mr Lee's decision to proceed with diplomatic overtures to North Korea despite the shooting has drawn criticism in the South Korean media.
The incident, which correspondents say is the first of its kind, was not publicised until after Mr Lee had told parliament in Seoul on Friday that he was ready to resume dialogue with the North.
The Mount Kumgang resort has attracted more than one million South Korean visitors since 1998.
With tours managed by South Korea's Hyundai group, the resort offers hotels, shops, a golf course and a spa - but it is also situated in a strategic naval zone.
Access to the special tourism zone is tightly controlled, and its border heavily policed.
The BBC's John Sudworth in Seoul says the resort - one of two North Korean tourist programmes - is one of the most visible symbols of the efforts by the two Koreas to engage in closer economic co-operation over the past decade.
The ventures have earned North Korea hundreds of millions of dollars in badly needed foreign currency.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

Cathy Buckle's Weekly Letter From Zimbabwe !

I AM FAILING THEM !

Dear Family and Friends,

In the main supermarket in my home town this weekend there were too many empty shelves to count. In the fortnight since Mr Mugabe was sworn in as President for his sixth term, everyday life has gone from struggle to complete crisis. No one is coping now and in the last two weeks virtually all foodstuffs, toiletries and household goods have completely disappeared from stores. On what should have been a busy weekend morning in our once thriving town, the car park was virtually empty and the only things to buy in the cavernous supermarket were cabbages, butternut squash, lemons, fizzy drinks and a few packets of meat."Where are all your goods?" I asked one shop attendant."There is nothing," he said, "the suppliers say they have nothing to deliver."I stood while he weighed the butternut squash I had chosen and exclaimed in shock at the 30 billion dollar price sticker he fixed to the vegetable.

"Can I show you something?" the man said and before I could answer he took his most recent pay slip out of his pocket. For an entire month the shop assistant had earned just 28 billion dollars - not even enough to buy one single butternut squash. Eight hours a day, five and half days a week and his entire salary wasnot enough to provide even one single meal. He told me he had a wife and a child to support and said with remorse and shame in his voice:"I am failing them and if I do not jump the border to look for work this month then they are surely going to die."

They are simple words stating a simple fact - people are surely going to diehere in Zimbabwe if this situation continues for much longer. Despite their desperate determination to stay in power and retain their 28 years of leadership of the country, Zanu PF have so far not even acknowledged the critical shortage of foodstuffs and basic medicines let alone done anything about resolving it.

Everywhere people have stories of such deprivation and suffering to recount and we are a nation in a permanent state of shock. Shock that our lives have been reduced to this. Shock that yet again the UN have been unable to find a common voice. Shocked that the violence and brutality continues and shocked that yet again we are hearing of talks about talks about talks. On the 29th March the MDC won a parliamentary majority, It is long past time for them to be sworn in and take up the reigns and lead Zimbabwe out of this hell.

Until next week, thanksfor reading, love cathy.

Copyright cathy buckle .12 July 2008.www.cathybuckle.com My books: "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" areavailable in South Africa from: books@clarkesbooks.co.za and in the UK from: orders@africabookcentre.com

CHINA 'IS FUELLING WAR IN DARFUR' !

By Hilary Andersson - BBC News, Darfur.

The BBC has found the first evidence that China is currently helping Sudan's government militarily in Darfur.
The Panorama TV programme tracked down Chinese army lorries in the Sudanese province that came from a batch exported from China to Sudan in 2005.
The BBC was also told that China was training fighter pilots who fly Chinese A5 Fantan fighter jets in Darfur.
China's government has declined to comment on the BBC's findings, which contravene a UN arms embargo on Darfur.
The embargo requires foreign nations to take measures to ensure they do not militarily assist anyone in the conflict in Darfur, in which the UN estimates that about 300,000 people have died.
More than two million people are also believed to have fled their villages in Darfur, destroyed by pro-government Arab Janjaweed militia.

Panorama traced the first lorry by travelling deep into the remote deserts of West Darfur.
They found a Chinese Dong Feng army lorry in the hands of one of Darfur's rebel groups.
The BBC established through independent eyewitness testimony that the rebels had captured it from Sudanese government forces in December.
The rebels filmed a second lorry with the BBC's camera. Both vehicles had been carrying anti-aircraft guns, one a Chinese gun.
Markings showed that they were from a batch of 212 Dong Feng army lorries that the UN had traced as having arrived in Sudan after the arms embargo was put in place.
The lorries came straight from the factory in China to Sudan and were consigned to Sudan's defence ministry. The guns were mounted after the lorries were imported from China.
When it is shooting or firing there is nowhere for you to move and the sound is just like the sound of the rain

The UN started looking for these lorries in Darfur three years ago, suspecting they had been sent there, but never found them.
"We had no specific access to Sudanese government army stores, we were not allowed to take down factory codes or model numbers or registrations etc to verify these kinds of things," said EJ Hogendoorn, a member of the UN panel of experts that was involved in trying to locate the lorries.
China has chosen not to respond to the BBC's findings. Its public position is that it abides by all UN arms embargoes.
China has said in the past that it told Sudan's government not to use Chinese military equipment in Darfur.
Sudan's government, however, has told the UN that it will send military equipment wherever it likes within its sovereign territory.

An international lawyer, Clare da Silva, says China's point that it has taken measures in line with the arms embargo's requirements to stop its weapons from going to Darfur is meaningless.
"It is an empty measure to take the assurances from a partner who clearly has no intention of abiding by the resolution," she said.
Ms da Silva said the BBC's evidence put China in violation of the arms embargo.
The UN panel of experts on Darfur has said it wants to examine the BBC's evidence.
The BBC found witnesses who said they saw the first Dong Feng which the BBC tracked down being used with its anti-aircraft gun in an attack in a town called Sirba, in West Darfur, in December.
"When it is shooting or firing there is nowhere for you to move and the sound is just like the sound of the rain. Then 'Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!'" said Hamaad Abakar Adballa, a witness in the Chadian refugee town of Birak.

The lorry's powerful anti-aircraft gun fired straight into civilian houses. The gun carries high calibre shells that explode on impact, spreading hot shards of metal and causing terrible wounds
Witnesses saw one hut take a direct hit from the gun:
"An intense wave of heat instantly sent all the huts around up in flames," one witness, Risique Bahar, said. "There was a lot of screaming."
In the attack on Sirba one woman was burnt to death, another horribly injured.
Sudan's government has been accused by the United States of genocide against Darfur's black Africans.
The terms of the embargo cover not only just the supply of weapons, military vehicles, paramilitary equipment. It also covers training any technical assistance, so the training of pilots obviously falls within the scope of the embargo
International lawyer, Clare da Silva
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) say war crimes by Sudan's Arab-dominated government have included summary executions, rape and torture.
Recently the conflict has deteriorated into more confused fighting, with rebel and militia groups also fighting each other. Two hundred thousand people have been displaced already this year.
Malnutrition rates are set to soar in South Darfur later this year due to insecurity and drought.
Darfur's landscape is spotted with blackened circles representing the hundreds of the villages that were burnt down by government forces and their Janjaweed allies.
Air attacks
In these attacks Darfur's civilians have been hunted not just from the ground, but from the sky.
Most civilians who tell stories of aerial attacks talk about Russian made Antanovs and helicopter gunships.
Many also talk about fighter jets being used, but no-one has ever answered the question of which type of fighter jets these are.

Kaltam Abakar Mohammed, a mother of seven, watched three of her children being blown to pieces as they were attacked by a fighter jet on 19 February in the town of Beybey in Darfur.
The BBC has established that Chinese Fantan fighter jets were flying on missions out of Nyala airport in south Darfur in February.
Panorama acquired satellite photographs of the two fighters at the airport on 18 June 2008, and its investigations indicate these are the only fighter jets that have been based in Darfur this year.
When Kaltam heard the sound of fighting early that morning, she took her children and ran.
"We start running near the well," she said. "We hid behind a big rock. Something that looks like an eagle started coming from over there. It looked like an eagle but it made a funny noise."

When the plane unleashed two bombs Kaltam's five-year-old daughter, Nura, was dismembered from the chest up.
Her eight-year-old son, Adam, was killed instantly, as was her 20-year-old daughter, Amna.
Kaltam's 19-month-old grandson still has shrapnel in his head from the fighter jet bombing. He cries a lot and often calls out for his mother, but she was killed in the attack.
Kaltam's 13-year-old girl, Hawa, cannot grasp what she saw happen that day to her brother and two sisters. She rarely speaks now.
Pilot training
The Chinese Fantan jets are believed to have been delivered to Sudan in 2003 before the current UN arms embargo was imposed on Darfur.
But the BBC has been told by two confidential sources that China is training Fantan fighter pilots.
Sudan imported a number of fighter trainers called K8s two years ago - they are designed to train pilots of fighters like Fantans.
"Clearly this is what they used to train for operations with the Fantans," said Chris Dietrich, a former member of the UN panel on Darfur.

This second truck also had plates identifying it as being from China
International lawyer Ms da Silva says if China is training Fantan pilots, this represents another Chinese violation of the UN arms embargo.
"The terms of the embargo cover not only just the supply of weapons, military vehicles, paramilitary equipment. It also covers training any technical assistance, so the training of pilots obviously falls within the scope of the embargo."
There are strong economic ties between the China and Sudan.
China buys most of Sudan's oil and believes that what Sudan needs is good business partners, help with development and a solid peace process in Darfur, instead of confrontation and sanctions from the West.
So when China's President Hu Jintao visited Sudan in 2007 he wrote off millions of dollars worth of debt and donated a multi-million pound interest free loan for a new presidential palace to Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir.
In April last year, China's military leaders pledged to strengthen co-operation with Sudan.
Panorama: China's Secret War will be on BBC One at 2030 BST on Monday 14 July 2008.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

PENTAGON ESPIONAGE ANALYST JAILED !

The information passed on related to Taiwan's new air defence system.
A former Pentagon analyst who passed military secrets to a Chinese spy has been sentenced to almost five years in prison by a US court.
Gregg Bergersen pleaded guilty in March to disclosing defence information to a New Orleans businessman, Tai Shen Kuo.
Much of the information was about US military sales to Taiwan.
Mr Bergersen admitted accepting gifts from Mr Kuo, along with cash payments and money for gambling trips to Las Vegas.
A court in Virginia sentenced Mr Bergersen to 57 months imprisonment, and a further three years supervision upon release.
He had faced a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Mr Bergersen had been unaware that Mr Kuo was passing the information on to the Chinese government.
Mr Kuo, who was arrested in February, will go on trial next month.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

KEY U.S. MORTGAGE LENDER GOES BUST !

IndyMac is the fifth US bank to fail so far this year.
One of the largest US mortgage lenders, the California-based IndyMac Bank, has collapsed amid a growing credit crisis.
Federal regulators seized the bank's assets, fearing it might not be able to meet withdrawals by depositors.
It is the second-largest financial institution to fail in US history, regulators say.
The failure came on a day when shares in the two biggest US home loan institutions - Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae - fell at one stage by almost 50%.
IndyMac had been struggling to raise funds and stay in business in one of the states worst hit by the US housing market slump.
The bank's primary regulator, the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), said depositors had withdrawn more than $1.3bn in the past 11 days.
"This institution failed today due to a liquidity crisis," OTS Director John Reich said.
The OTS believed IndyMac was unlikely to meet its depositors' demands and transferred its operations to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which will seek a buyer.
IndyMac customer Steve Knieerein told ABC television: "I'm very angry, very upset about this. I wanted to withdraw my money."
People with deposits of up to $100,000 each are covered by insurers.
But about 10,000 people had uninsured funds over that limit with IndyMac - worth a total $1bn at the time of closing.
The FDIC said it would pay those people an advance dividend equal to half of their uninsured deposit.
It is the fifth US financial institution this year to succumb amid a credit crunch, falling house prices and rising foreclosures.
The move came after rollercoaster trading on Friday for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae - which are behind half of all US mortgages.
They play an important role in the financial markets in providing funding for home loans by buying up mortgages and packaging them as investments.

As mortgage backers, the companies have had to pay out when homeowners have defaulted on their loans.
Both firms defended their finances, saying they had enough capital to weather the housing slump.
Today our primary focus is supporting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in their current form as they carry out their important mission - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

Q&A: Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae

Shares in the two firms recovered after US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson signalled he was not on the verge of taking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into public hands.
"Our primary focus is supporting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in their current form as they carry out their important mission," he said.
President George W Bush was briefed on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac earlier on Friday.
Mr Bush said Mr Paulson assured him he and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke "will be working this issue very hard".
After a volatile trading session, Freddie Mac shares closed down 3.1% at $7.75.
Shares of Fannie Mae ended the day down 22.4% at $10.25 after sliding as much as 49% to a 19-year low of $6.68.
US Senator Christopher Dodd said the Federal Reserve was considering allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to borrow directly from the central bank, which also helped the shares to recover.
Some media reported the Treasury was planning some kind of government-led rescue but Mr Paulson said only that they were "maintaining a dialogue with regulators and with the companies".

BBC NEWS REPORT.

IRAN 'TO TARGET ISRAEL, US BASES' !

Iran will target "the heart of Israel" and 32 US bases in the Gulf if they launch an attack on Iran, an Iranian official has warned.
The Iranian response would come "before the dust from this attack has settled", Mojtaba Zolnour said.
Mr Zolnour is a representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the elite Revolutionary Guards.
His comments come amid fears that Iran could be attacked by the US and Israel over its nuclear programme.
They also followed Iranian missile tests capable of hitting Israel early this week.
Tehran denies Western claims that it is seeking to build a nuclear weapon.
It has repeatedly rejected demands to halt enriching uranium, which can be used as fuel for power plants or material for weapons if refined to a greater degree.
The European Union imposed new sanctions on Iran in June.
But it has offered a package of incentives to persuade Iran to suspend uranium enrichment.
Iran has said it is prepared to negotiate with major world powers, but insisted the talks must address Iran's nuclear rights.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZIMBABWE - LETTER FROM THE DIASPORA !

12th July 2008

Dear Friends,

Article 21(3) of the United Nations Charter on Human Rights declares. "The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections."
The key word there is 'genuine'. Did the Presidential runoff on June 27 constitute a 'genuine' election? With massive intimidation of the opposition beforehand and only one candidate it is hard to see how anyone can claim that the result reflected the 'will of the people which is the basis of the authority of government.' Election observers from the AU, the PAP and SADC were unanimous that the conditions for free and fair election simply did not exist. The haste with which Robert Mugabe declared himself president even before the results had been announced was a clear indication to the nation and the world of his contempt for the democratic process and international opinion. In effect, he was challenging the world to recognise him as President for another five years.
Speaking on July 9th Bright Matonga declared, " The people of Zimbabwe made a decision on June 27 and that decision has to be respected." With more than 100 killings, over 1500 MDC activists in prison, 5000 polling agents missing and at least 20 elected opposition MPs either in prison or in hiding, it was no surprise that the western powers should state categorically that they did not recognise Robert Mugabe as president of Zimbabwe. Now the UN is locked in fierce debate on what to do about Zimbabwe. The invasion of Iraq has shown that military intervention against dictatorships does not solve the problem in the long term and only causes immense human suffering for the general population. The imposition of sanctions appears to be the only answer. Not general sanctions against the Zimbabwean people but sanctions aimed specifically at the clique of top military men surrounding Mugabe and keeping him in power. There are thirteen of them and a draft UN resolution has named and shamed them. They are the men who have ruthlessly set about maintaining Mugabe's grip on power by nothing less than the total extermination of the opposition in an onslaught of violence that includes rape, murder and horrific torture.
All week long the papers here have been analysing whether or not sanctions work. Paul Vallely writing in The Independent (10.07.08) argued the pros and cons of sanctions to deal with rogue regimes. They certainly helped to bring down the apartheid regime in South Africa - something Thabo Mbeki chooses to forget - and since military intervention is unlikely what other option is there to deal with a regime that has earned the revulsion of the rest of the world? Sanctions and an oil embargo could certainly immobilise the military force that is keeping Mugabe in power. On the other side of the argument, Vallely points out that for sanctions to work everyone has to abide by them. That is the weakness of the pro-sanctions argument. Sanctions busting by Mugabe's allies - and he still has some - will destroy the effectiveness of the measure.
Inside the country, Zanu PF apologists have descended as always to the politics of race. Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, the Minister of Information claims in The Herald, that all this is nothing more than 'international racism' and 'an attempt to impose a government on the people of Zimbabwe.' His side kick, Bright Matonga, never shy of playing the race card, despite having a British wife, says the west "wants to undermine the AU and President Mbeki's mediation because they think only white people think better. It is an insult to African leaders." And what of the African leaders themselves? Sanctions, they say, will only harm Zimbabwe; Thabo Mbeki of course agrees. He has a short memory; it was the ANC who called for sanctions against the apartheid regime. While the debate rages on at the UN, Mbeki conveniently convenes a meeting of Zanu PF and the MDC just in time to assure the rest of the world that there is no need for sanctions since talks are already underway to form a Government of National Unity. No surprise to learn the Mugabe will continue to head that government and the MDC will be swallowed up. The sickening picture of a smiling Arthur Mutambara shaking hands with Mugabe at State House tells Zimbabweans very clearly how this is going to go but the people are not fools; they have every reason to know that Mugabe and Zanu PF are not to be trusted. Mugabe and his political soul mate, the chosen SADC negotiator, Thabo Mbeki, share the same mindset: Africa's liberation was won through the barrel of a gun and no mere cross on a ballot paper can change that. Meanwhile the killing, raping and burning continues. There are an estimated 200.000 people displaced because of the violence. "It is the MDC" says Nicholas Goche, "who committed the violence to create sympathy to coincide with the G8 Summit…to give the impression that there is increasing political violence and that people are still being beaten, but all that is false." At the UN the Zimbabwean delegation warns that sanctions "will push Zimbabwe towards a civil war." Zimbabweans know very well that it is not sanctions that 'will push the country towards civil war' it is Mugabe's own militia and war vets under the control of the military who are already doing that. Sanctions, if universally applied, would make it impossible for these criminals to travel outside the country or access their vast fortunes salted away in foreign bank accounts. The imposition of a strict arms embargo would mean that the regime was no longer be able to buy arms to kill their own countrymen and women.
In the light of near-universal condemnation from the world community, Mugabe can no longer claim that all is well in Zimbabwe and not all his racist ranting can make it so. What Zimbabwe needs is an honest, impartial negotiator to help solve the impasse. While Thabo Mbeki drones on about how only Zimbabweans can solve their own problems, his every moves demonstrates his own partiality, even to the extent of rejecting a UN negotiator to help solve the problem. Since the sham election of June 27 thousands more Zimbabwean refugees have flooded into South Africa and still this stubborn man cannot bring himself to admit that he has utterly failed to bring an end to the crisis. Even the world football body FIFA has warned South Africa that holding the 2010 World Cup is in doubt if the situation is not brought under control in Zimbabwe. Nothing moves Mbeki. One has to wonder what it is, apart from the so-called Liberation Credentials, that tie him so closely to Robert Mugabe and his disgraced regime. Perhaps if we knew the answer to that question we might be a step nearer to finding a solution. How much more African blood has to be shed, how many more women have to be gang raped and children be orphaned before Mbeki acts to stop the madness?

Yours in the (continuing) struggle. PH http://www.lulu.com/content/2752118

CAMPAIGN FAILS TO DISLODGE MUGABE !

By Paul Reynolds - World affairs correspondent, BBC News website.

Robert Mugabe and his aides remain safely entrenched. "Robert Mugabe has to go," declared the British Minister for Africa Lord Mark Malloch Brown on BBC TV on 30 June.
Robert Mugabe has not gone. So by that benchmark the diplomatic campaign led by Britain and the United States against Mr Mugabe has not (so far, at least) achieved its goal.
The diplomatic effort encountered a major setback on Friday when the Russians and Chinese vetoed the sanctions proposed by the US and UK.
To suffer one veto might be regarded as unfortunate. To suffer two looks like carelessness - and over confidence.
There will have to be some heart-searching in London and Washington about their tactics. Not only have they failed to bring South Africa and the African Union fully on board over Zimbabwe, they have now endured what has to be regarded as the humiliation of a double veto from Russia and China. And China normally abstains when there is a difficult vote.
It tells us a lot about the state of relations between the major powers at the moment. They have been precarious with Russia for some time. Now China might be flexing its own muscles.
The US and UK failed to convince Russia and China that Zimbabwe had graduated from an internal and regional tragedy into a threat to international peace and security - the touchstone for Security Council action.
It seems that both Moscow and Beijing felt they were being bounced into action and the conclusion must be that they will be reluctant to have the Council intervene in other areas of concern to the West.
Perhaps they do not want the Council to be used for what they see as Western purposes and priorities.
The US and the UK perhaps assumed too easily that the criticism of Zimbabwe made at the G8 summit recently could be translated into a Security Council resolution. After all the G8 statement did say that "steps" would be taken "introducing financial and other measures against those individuals responsible for violence."
But getting an actual resolution was another matter.
The sanctions were aimed not against the ordinary people but against Mr Mugabe and 13 of his closest associates. Their assets abroad were to be frozen and they faced a travel ban.
There was also to be an arms embargo on Zimbabwe, supporting the previous arms ban imposed by the European union.
And there was a call for the UN to appoint its own mediator, to work alongside the South African president Thabo Mbeki - who is regarded by the US and UK to have been too conciliatory to Mr Mugabe.
Mr Mbeki told G8 leaders recently that tough sanctions on Zimbabwe could ignite a civil war there.

Even the more modest ambition of denying Mr Mugabe a seat at the African Union (AU), suggested by the same Lord Malloch Brown at an earlier briefing for the media, has not been reached.
The AU might have been a bit embarrassed by Mr Mugabe's appearance, but it gave him his seat.
The campaign has not been without some results.
The EU and individual member states have made strong statements denying recognition to Mr Mugabe as Zimbabwe's president. That means it will be hard for him to attend future EU-Africa meetings as he did last year in Portugal.
But the African Union, while calling for a national unity government, refrained from saying anything really critical, though some individual countries did so.
The G8 meeting statement expressing "grave concern" stopped short of denying recognition, saying in a slightly ambiguous way: "We do not accept the legitimacy of any government that does not reflect the will of the Zimbabwean people."
All this helps to isolate Mr Mugabe but it does not remove him. He seems set to remain in power for the foreseeable future.

But even if South Africa and its fellow members of the Southern Africa Development Community had more openly condemned Mr Mugabe, it must surely be doubtful if that would have had much effect.
There comes a time in the life of an entrenched regime when it knows that its back is against the wall but it chooses to fight on anyway.
In such conditions, sanctions usually have little effect in the short-term.
Paul.Reynolds-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS" !

"ONCE WE ACCEPT OUR LIMITS,

WE GO BEYOND THEM" !

__________

OLMERT CORRUPTION PROBE WIDENED !

Olmert denies corruption allegations but says he will resign if charged.
Police have widened an investigation into allegations of corruption against Israeli PM Ehud Olmert to also look at whether he may have committed fraud.
A joint statement by police and the justice ministry said he was suspected of seeking "duplicate funding for his trips abroad from public bodies".
Earlier, Mr Olmert was questioned for a third time over allegations stemming from before he became prime minister.
There have been calls for Mr Olmert, who denies any wrongdoing, to resign.
His governing Kadima party is due to hold a leadership election in mid-September.

Ehud Olmert: Corruption allegations

Earlier, Mr Olmert was interviewed by police for a third time as part of an inquiry attempting to establish whether he dispensed favours in exchange for funds he allegedly received illegally from a US financier, Morris Talansky.
Mr Talansky has testified he gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in envelopes full of cash to Israel's prime minister but said he did not seek or receive any favours in return.
Mr Talansky has said some of the money was used for expensive personal items, and funds intended as loans were never repaid. Mr Olmert has said the funds were used legally for election campaigns.
A statement issued by the police and justice ministry afterwards said Mr Olmert had also been "asked to give his account about suspicions of serious fraud and other offences".
"According to the suspicions, during his tenure as Jerusalem mayor and trade and industry minister, Olmert would seek duplicate funding for his trips abroad from public bodies, including from the state, with each of them requested to fund the same trip," it added.
Police suspect that the "considerable sums" that remained after the travel expenses were paid for were transferred by Mr Olmert to a special account his travel agency administered for him.
"These monies were used to finance private trips abroad by Olmert and his family," the police statement said.
Mr Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem for 10 years until 2003. He then served as minister of trade and industry for two years before succeeding Ariel Sharon as prime minister.
He has not responded to the latest allegations, but has previously denied all wrongdoing and said he will resign if he is indicted.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

U.S. MORTGAGE FIRMS' SHARES SLUMP !

Check Freddie Mac shares
Check Fannie Mae shares

Shares in US mortgage firms Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have fallen by more than 40% in early trading amid concerns for the future of the companies.
Investors are concerned that the government may have to step in to rescue them, a move that would wipe out the value of existing shares.
But the US Treasury said it would back the firms in their "current form".
The companies are behind half of all US mortgages and have been hard hit by the slowdown in the housing market.
The two companies play an important role in the financial markets in providing funding for home loans by buying up mortgages and packaging them as investments.
As mortgage backers, the companies have had to pay out when homeowners have defaulted on their loans.
Freddie Mac shares fell $4.03, or 50%, to $3.97, at the start of trading. Shares of Fannie Mae fell $6.09, or 46%, to $7.11.

There has been a sense of unfolding crisis surrounding the companies this week according to the BBC's New York Business Correspondent Greg Wood.

Q&A: Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae

He added that it would be unthinkable that they could be allowed to fail.
While no longer government owned, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are government sponsored, leading many to suggest that the Bush administration will be forced to step in.

In response to reports that the Treasury was planning some kind of government-led rescue, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said: "Today our primary focus is supporting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in their current form as they carry out their important mission."
Mr Paulson said the Treasury was "maintaining a dialogue with regulators and with the companies".
He stressed that their regulator continues to work with them "as they take the steps necessary to allow them to continue to perform their important mission".
However analysts were disappointed with his remarks.
"It is designed more to signal policy intent than manage market expectations," said Michael Woolfolk of Bank of New York Mellon.
"He left his cheer-leading outfit in the drawer."
Following Mr Paulson's remarks, Fannie Mae shares were trading 35% lower and Freddie Mac's shares were 40.5% down.
Earlier this week, Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac's regulator stressed that the firms were "adequately capitalised".
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said they had large liquidity portfolios, access to the debt market and over $1.5 trillion in unpledged assets.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZIMBABWE RIVAL PARTIES HOLD TALKS !

Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party and both factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change have begun talks in South Africa.
This is their first meeting since June's run-off poll, which President Robert Mugabe won unopposed after the MDC pulled out because of violence.
The African Union has urged Zimbabwe to form a government of national unity.
South Africa President Thabo Mbeki is leading mediation efforts while opposing moves towards UN sanctions.
The BBC's Peter Biles in Johannesburg says it is not yet clear whether the talks involve anything substantial.
But he says both sides now realise that dialogue is the only way forward and that there has to be some kind of power sharing.
Previously Mr Mugabe had said there could only be talks if the opposition recognised him as president, while Mr Tsvangirai had ruled out talks unless there was an end to continuing post-election violence.
Meanwhile, the US and the UK are pushing for a travel ban and assets freeze on President Mugabe and 13 of his allies, and an arms embargo.
Ahead of an expected UN Security Council resolution, the European Parliament has called on European countries to impose more economic sanctions against members of Zimbabwe's government.

DRAFT SANCTIONS LIST
Robert Mugabe, President
Constantine Chiwenga, Defence Forces Commander
Emmerson Mnangagwa, Rural Housing Minister
Gideon Gono, Reserve Bank head
Augustine Chihuri, Police chief
Patrick Chinamasa, Justice Minister
Perence Shiri, Air Force chief
David Parirenyatwa, Health Minister
Didymus Mutasa, Security and Lands Minister
George Charamba, President's spokesman
Paradzi Zimondi, Prison Service head
Happyton Bonyongwe, Central Intelligence Organisation head
Sydney Sekeremayi, Defence Minister
Joseph Made, State Minister for Agricultural Engineering
Source: Draft UN Security Council resolution

Full text: G8 statement
G8 'revulsion' at Zimbabwe crisis

The parliament in Strasbourg said travel restrictions on businessmen who financed Mr Mugabe's government should be among the new measures.
It also said the banks that provided loans or invested in Zimbabwe should be exposed. The vote is non-binding.
The UN Security Council is due to meet in New York to discuss a draft resolution on Zimbabwe, despite several African leaders saying they oppose sanctions, including South Africa.
Mr Mbeki reportedly told G8 leaders earlier this week that UN sanctions could lead to civil war.
South Africa is currently on the UN Security Council but does not have the power of veto.
Earlier, the High Court eased bail conditions on MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti to allow him to travel to South Africa for proposed talks on forming a unity government.
Two representatives of South Africa's ruling African National Congress also met Mr Mugabe in Harare on Wednesday. No details of that meeting have emerged.
South Africa's leader tried to meet all sides in Zimbabwe over the weekend.
But MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai refused, saying meeting Mr Mugabe at State House would mean recognising his legitimacy as president.
Mr Tsvangirai won the first round of Zimbabwe's presidential elections on 29 March, but official results gave him less than 50% share needed to avoid a run-off.
Since March, the opposition says more than 100 of its supporters have been killed, some 5,000 are missing and more than 200,000 have been forced from their homes.
A special one-hour programme of BBC Focus on Africa exploring the political, economic and social prospects for Zimbabwe will be broadcast on Tuesday 15 July at 1500 GMT on the BBC World Service.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

G8 SUMMIT : HOW DID LEADERS FARE ?

The BBC's diplomatic correspondent James Robbins gives his assessment on how each of the G8 leaders performed at a summit in Japan.

SILVIO BERLUSCONI, ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER
A curious summit for Mr Berlusconi.

G8 summit: Key issues

His officials suggested he played a crucial role in the Zimbabwe negotiations. Other countries dismissed that.
US President George W Bush called him "amigo". His Italian friend forgave the US leader his use of Spanish, but was less pleased to be described in the White House press pack given to journalists as one of the "most controversial leaders in the history of a country known for government corruption and vice".
The White House apologised for what it called "sloppy work" and said it seemed an official had simply lifted the characterisation from the internet without reading it.

GORDON BROWN, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER

A prime minister on the defensive at home, where his unpopularity is huge, looked in command and in his element at the summit.
Mr Brown wore down fellow leaders by bombarding them with fact and detailed argument to win support for a strong statement on Zimbabwe, to advance collective commitments on climate change, and to stop what threatened to be wholesale G8 retreat on aid for Africa.
It felt like a good summit for him, even if it is unlikely to be rewarded by stronger poll ratings in Britain.

GEORGE W BUSH, US PRESIDENT

His eighth and last G8. The president looked and sounded "demob happy". He was in full hugging, back-slapping and joshing mood.
He did move the US closer to the consensus on climate change, by consenting to language which makes achieving 50% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 a G8 "vision".
It is conditional, however, on the rest of the world reaching a deal at next year's crucial negotiations in Copenhagen.
Others see a denier of the science converted, and look forward to dealing with whoever succeeds him.
Both candidates for the White House have already promised far more from the world's largest polluter.

YASUO FUKUDA, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER

A nervous host of the G8. He has been desperate to hang on in office despite his unpopularity as prime minister long enough to take the chair.
He succeeded, and was praised for steering the meeting through a huge agenda, with the world confronting something close to a perfect storm in the economy.
"While the foundations of the world economy in the long-term remain solid, right now the price of primary products keeps rising and contributing to inflationary pressures," Mr Fukuda said.
"The G8 shares this common understanding and agrees to take all macroeconomics measures and structural reforms needed to alleviate this problem," he said.
We will not know if the G8 lives up to that commitment for many years, as structural reforms take a long time to implement, even longer to deliver results.

STEPHEN HARPER, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER

Mr Harper led the G8 discussion on Afghanistan. He said all members agreed with "unprecedented unanimity" about the need to do much more.
"I think every one of the G8 countries understands the question is critical, understands that success in Afghanistan is critical," he said.
The issue is especially poignant for Canada. Some 90 Canadians have died in Afghanistan since 2001, one in 10 of losses among the international forces.

DMITRY MEDVEDEV, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT

The most important thing for Russia "was to improve the new President's global image".
Did he succeed? No gaffes. He stood firm on most issues. He appeared to give ground on Zimbabwe, agreeing to a statement which signalled agreement to international measures against President Robert Mugabe and his close circle.
Mr Medvedev then made clear that his interpretation of the statement did not imply support for UN sanctions.
Result: he looks more like his predecessor, President Vladimir Putin - unpredictable, hard to read, and tough.

ANGELA MERKEL, GERMAN CHANCELLOR

Mrs Merkel was determined to protect the climate change breakthrough from her G8 summit last year at Heiligendamm.
Most people think she succeeded, even if the language agreed at Hokkaido on climate change is tortuous and ambiguous.
There has been considerable progress on the issue of climate protection, she said, and it is clear that today no country in the world can solve the problems alone.
"We must stand together," the chancellor said.

NICOLAS SARKOZY, FRENCH PRESIDENT

Mr Sarkozy was slightly on the defensive.
He came under enormous pressure to abandon signs he is embracing protectionism which threatens to demolish a global agreement to open up world trade.
France is reluctant to approve cuts to European Union farm subsidies that would have to be part of any deal.
French farmers are major beneficiaries. Mr Brown rode to the rescue: "President Sarkozy made clear he wanted to see a break in the deadlock."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZIMBABWE SANCTIONS CALL 'RACIST' !

Zimbabwe has denounced calls for UN sanctions over disputed polls as "a colonial and racist campaign".
Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said the issue did not belong on the UN Security Council's agenda as Zimbabwe was not a threat to world peace.
The US and the UK are pushing for a travel ban and assets freeze on President Robert Mugabe and 13 of his allies, and an arms embargo.
Meanwhile, leaders of South Africa's ruling party have met Mr Mugabe.
South Africa sees a government of national unity as a more realistic solution to Zimbabwe's crisis.
Zimbabwean journalist Brian Hungwe says there are no details of the president's meeting with two African National Congress (ANC) officials in the capital, Harare.

DRAFT SANCTIONS LIST
Robert Mugabe, President
Constantine Chiwenga, Defence Forces Commander
Emmerson Mnangagwa, Rural Housing Minister
Gideon Gono, Reserve Bank head
Augustine Chihuri, Police chief
Patrick Chinamasa, Justice Minister
Perence Shiri, Air Force chief
David Parirenyatwa, Health Minister
Didymus Mutasa, Security and Lands Minister
George Charamba, President's spokesman
Paradzi Zimondi, Prison Service head
Happyton Bonyongwe, Central Intelligence Organisation head
Sydney Sekeremayi, Defence Minister
Joseph Made, State Minister for Agricultural Engineering
Source: Draft UN Security Council resolution

Full text: G8 statement
G8 'revulsion' at Zimbabwe crisis

But the ANC Deputy-President Kgalema Motlanthe repeated the African Union's call for dialogue between Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Their meeting came as the High Court eased bail conditions on MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti to allow him to travel to South Africa for proposed crisis talks on forming a unity government.
Mr Biti's lawyer told the court that opposition talks with Zanu-PF were due to begin in Pretoria this week.
South Africa's leader Thabo Mbeki, the regionally appointed mediator, was in Zimbabwe over the weekend to meet the two parties.
But MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai boycotted the talks, saying meeting Mr Mugabe at State House would mean recognising his legitimacy as president.
The MDC says more than 100 of its supporters have been killed since it won elections in March, some 5,000 are missing and more than 200,000 have been forced from their homes.
It pulled out of a presidential run-off last month, citing state-sponsored violence and leaving Mr Mugabe unopposed.
The UN Security Council is due to meet in New York to discuss a draft resolution on Zimbabwe despite several African leaders saying they oppose sanctions, including South Africa.
Mr Mbeki reportedly told G8 leaders earlier this week that UN sanctions could lead to civil war.
South Africa is currently on the UN Security Council but does not have the power of veto.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

HIDDEN KAFKA PAPERS SET TO EMERGE !

By Paul Wood - BBC News, Jerusalem.

German-speaking Kafka lived in Prague.
Experts are to examine previously unseen documents belonging to the writer Franz Kafka, which were locked away in a Tel Aviv flat for 40 years.
The papers have been gathering dust in the home of the former secretary of Kafka's literary executor, Max Brod.
Since his death in 1968, they've been kept by Esther Hoffe, who right up until her recent death at the age of 101 doggedly refused to release them.
But it is unclear if the fragile papers remain legible after so many years.
Before he died from tuberculosis aged 41, Franz Kafka decreed that all his manuscripts should be burned.
His friend and literary executor, Max Brod, ignored that instruction.
The result was such brooding novels of alienation, persecution and hopelessness as The Trial, Metamorphosis and The Castle.
The published works owes much to Max Brod's editing since Kafka rarely finished any of his works - The Castle actually stopped mid-sentence.
That is why the unseen notes and documents might be so valuable.
They were originally packed into two suitcases and smuggled out of Prague in 1939 just ahead of the German advance on the city.
They've been kept in Tel Aviv these past 40 years by Brod's secretary, Esther Hoffe, who refused all requests to examine them.
The authorities here have warned that the damp in her flat and the hoards of dogs and cats she kept may have damaged or even destroyed the papers.
The world of Kafka scholarship is in a state of anxious suspense - not unlike one of Kafka's characters.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

FRENCH FIRM 'QUITS IRAN GAS DEAL' !

Total was reportedly the last major western energy firm interested in Iran.
The head of French energy giant Total has said it will not invest in Iran because it is too politically risky.
The company had been planning to develop the huge South Pars gas field, but Christophe de Margerie told the Financial Times it would not go ahead.
The announcement comes a day after Iran test-fired a series of missiles amid weeks of rising tensions with Israel and the US over its nuclear ambitions.
Analysts say Total's move will be a big blow to the Iranian energy industry.
It means Iran is now unlikely to significantly increase its gas exports until late into the next decade, they add.
In further response to the test missiles, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday that Washington would defend the interests of America and those of its allies from attacks by Iran.

Total has a memorandum of understanding with the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company to develop Phase 11 of Iran's half of the South Pars field in the Gulf.
In May, Total said it was still interested in working on the project together with the Malaysian company, Petronas.
But Mr De Margerie's comments now cast serious doubt on whether the French firm will invest in the Islamic Republic in the near future.
"Today we would be taking too much political risk to invest in Iran because people will say: 'Total will do anything for money'," he said.
The remarks follow increasing tension between Iran and Israel over Tehran's nuclear programme.

Iran has the second biggest gas reserves after Russia.
The US has also recently stepped up the pressure to impose tougher sanctions on the Iranian government and companies that do business with it.
Total was the last major Western energy group to have seriously considered investing in the country's huge gas reserves.
It was also one of the few companies in the world to have the technology needed to exploit Iran's huge, but untapped gas reserves.
The BBC's Jon Leyne in Tehran says it has been particularly galling for Tehran to watch as Qatar pumps vast amounts of gas from the South Pars field to its side of the Gulf, helping it become one of the world's major energy suppliers.
But observers say it is not just sanctions or political pressure - international banks simply are not prepared to put up the billions of dollars needed for such investments in Iran.

Mr De Margerie's remarks come a day after state media reported that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards test-fired a updated version of the Shahab-3 missile, said to have a range of 2,000km (1,240 miles).

Gen Hoseyn Salami, the Guards' air force commander, said the tests demonstrated Iran's "resolve and might against enemies who in recent weeks have threatened Iran with harsh language".
State media quoted him as saying: "Our hands are always on the trigger and our missiles are ready for launch."
Tehran has tested the Shahab-3 before, but the latest launch comes amid rising tensions in the region.
William Burns, the top official handling Iranian issues at the US state department, said the launch was "very disturbing, provocative and reckless".
But US officials played down suggestions that the move had brought military confrontation with Iran any closer.
"The reality is there is a lot of signalling going on, but everybody recognises what the consequences of any kind of a conflict would be," said Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

REV JACKSON SORRY FOR OBAMA JIBE !

Rev Jackson said he had "deep and wide support" for Mr Obama.
US civil rights leader the Rev Jesse Jackson has apologised for "regretfully crude" remarks he made about Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
In a reference to Mr Obama, Mr Jackson had said on US Fox News: "I want to cut his nuts off", not knowing his comments were picked up by a live microphone.
Mr Jackson had said he thought Mr Obama was "speaking down to black people".
The reverend said he was "very sorry for any harm" and that he had "deep and wide" support for the Obama campaign.
Mr Jackson has been a key civil rights campaigner and was unsuccessful when running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984.

Mr Jackson was talking to a guest ahead of a live interview on Fox on Sunday in Chicago when he made the remarks.
He was discussing the question of Mr Obama's speeches on morality that the presidential candidate had made in black churches.
He said he thought there were other key issues facing the black community, such as unemployment and crime.
The reverend added: "See, Barack been, um, talking down to black people on this faith based... I want to cut his nuts off... Barack... he's talking down to black people."
Mr Jackson said he had called the Obama campaign to apologise "for any harm or hurt that this hot mic private conversation may have caused".
"My support for Senator Obama's campaign is wide, deep and unequivocal."
Mr Jackson said he was trying to appeal to Mr Obama for "the moral content of his message to not only deal with the personal and moral responsibility of black males, but to deal with the collective moral responsibility of government and the public policy".
A spokesman for the Obama campaign, Bill Burton, said the presidential candidate would "continue to speak out about our responsibilities to ourselves and each other, and he of course accepts Reverend Jackson's apology".
Mr Obama has had a number of problems with clergymen during his election campaign.
In May he said he was "deeply disappointed" with a sermon by supporter Rev Michael Pfleger, who suggested presidential rival Hillary Clinton had felt "entitled" to beat Mr Obama because she was white.
Earlier, Mr Obama denounced the claim by Rev Jeremiah Wright, who officiated at his wedding and baptised his daughters, that the 9/11 attacks were an example of "America's chickens coming home to roost".

BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS" !

"WHAT YOU DISLIKE IN OTHERS,

TAKE CARE TO CORRECT IN YOURSELF" !

________

US CONSULATE IN TURKEY ATTACKED !

Six people have died in a gun battle outside the US consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
The city's Governor, Muammer Guler, said three policemen and three attacking gunmen were killed.
No injuries were reported to staff inside the consulate. The US ambassador to Turkey condemned it as "an obvious act of terrorism" aimed at the US.
The driver of a vehicle that dropped off the gunmen at the consulate reportedly escaped.
Reports quoted police sources as saying the suspects belonged to a Turkish Sunni Islamic fundamentalist group, says David O'Byrne in Istanbul.
The Great Eastern Islamic Raiders Front is thought to have links to al-Qaeda, says our correspondent.
The consulate was moved from the centre of Istanbul to a hill on the northern outskirts of the city following the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.

A witness to the attack, Yavuz Erkut Yuksel, said the attackers had initially emerged from a car and surprised the police officers guarding the building.
"One of them approached a policeman while hiding his gun and shot him in the head," he told CNN-Turk.
Governor Guler said: "There is no doubt this was a terrorist attack."

The US ambassador to Turkey, Ross Wilson, said: "It is enough to say they are terrorists who carried out a cowardly and dastardly attack."
Turkish President Abdullah Gul said: "Turkey will fight to the end against those who are behind them."
Turkey has seen armed attacks from a variety of groups in recent years.
The most deadly was in November 2003, when 58 people were killed by Islamist militants in suicide bombings outside two synagogues, the British consulate and a British bank in Istanbul.
The Kurdish rebels of the PKK have also been blamed for several attacks, including a car bombing that killed six people in the city of Diyarbakir in January.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

G8 'REVULSION' AT ZIMBABWE CRISIS !

Gordon Brown has said the G8 summit has made clear the world's "revulsion" at the situation in Zimbabwe and urged countries to support an arms embargo.
He said the crisis following Robert Mugabe's re-election had been at the centre of talks and all G8 members recognised the regime was illegitimate.
A UN resolution with new sanctions on 14 named individuals and arms embargo, is being backed by the UK and US.
But Russia may veto the UN sanctions, also opposed by some African leaders.
Mr Mugabe was declared the winner of a one-candidate run-off election, amid reports of the violent intimidation of his opponents.

In a wide-ranging press conference on the last day of the G8 summit, Mr Brown said the talks had made clear the "revulsion of the world" at President Mugabe's regime and that the recent election had not been "free or fair".
He said the only legitimate result had been the first presidential election on 29 March, when official results gave opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai more votes than Mr Mugabe - but not enough to avoid a run-off.
The mood is outrage against what is happening in Zimbabwe, disgust at the behaviour of the Mugabe regime - Gordon Brown.

Russia may veto Mugabe sanctions

Mr Tsvangirai later pulled out of the presidential run-off, citing violence in the campaign.
The prime minister said he was "hopeful" he could gain "considerable support" for a draft UN resolution that would stop named members of the regime from travelling to other countries and would freeze bank accounts in any country.
It would also impose a UN arms embargo, including weapons, military vehicles and equipment, against Zimbabwe, he said.
'Blood on its hands'
But Russia's ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin said some parts of the draft were "quite excessive" and "clearly in conflict with the notion of sovereignty of a state member of the United Nations".
And in his closing press conference at the summit Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said that "no concrete decisions" had been taken on further international action against Zimbabwe.
Asked earlier about Russia's attitude to the UN draft resolution, Mr Brown said every country in the G8 had backed sanctions against Zimbabwe and he hoped the UN Security Council would find it possible to support the resolution.

At the end of his first summit, Gordon Brown believes it's been worthwhile. He's been in his element here -Nick Robinson, BBC political editor.

Read Nick's blog in full

He said: "I believe the mood, not just of the G8, but of other countries present... the mood is outrage against what is happening in Zimbabwe, disgust at the behaviour of the Mugabe regime, an acceptance by all of them that this is an illegitimate regime that has got blood on its hands."
Asked later whether China would support the plans, Mr Brown said: "We do not expect to get every country to support us on this but we believe we can gain sufficient support for this important resolution to be passed over the next few days."
Both Russia and China have the power of veto at the UN Security Council.

Later Ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku, who negotiates at the UN on behalf of Zimbabwe, told BBC Radio 4's World At One programme that moves to introduce sanctions would fail. "It's an indictment to all developing countries that if we let it happen to Zimbabwe, who is next?
"There you find the United Kingdom and the United States trying to effect a regime change in Zimbabwe using the Security Council. I'm sure there are reasonable voices in council who will resist that."
But Sir John Sawers, the British ambassador to the UN, told the same programme: "I think the Russians will need to think a little carefully about signing up to such a statement one day in the G8 and then blocking something which implements it in the Security Council just a day or so later."
He added: "We believe that there is sufficient support around the council table and we think it would be unwise for either Russia or China, after what they've said given the wider issues at stake - for them to block what is a very strongly held view, not just in Europe and the United States but in many countries around Africa."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

FURIOUS FRENCH ROW OVER BREAK-IN !

Segolene Royal is one of President Sarkozy's fiercest critics.
Supporters of French President Nicolas Sarkozy have reacted angrily to a statement by Socialist Segolene Royal linking him to a break-in at her flat.
In a TV interview on Tuesday, Ms Royal suggested that last week's burglary was connected to her recent criticism of "the Sarkozy clan's grip on France".
PM Francois Fillon said the Socialist ex-presidential candidate was "losing her self-control" and had no proof.
A spokesman for Mr Sarkozy's UMP party said Ms Royal had "blown a fuse".
Another Sarkozy supporter, parliamentary Speaker Bernard Accoyer, said: "She will stop at nothing to get attention."
Ms Royal - who was defeated by Mr Sarkozy's in last year's presidential election - filed a complaint with police after her flat outside Paris was broken into on 27 June.
She says the intruders rummaged through her belongings, but stole nothing.
"I note that last week - just after I'd said that the Sarkozy clan's grip on France must come to an end - my home was ransacked," she told French TV on Tuesday.
"I do establish a link between the two."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

PERKS OF PENANCE FOR SAUDI JIHADIS !

By Shiraz Maher BBC Newsnight, Riyadh

A care centre inmate enjoys one of the benefits of rehabilitationIn a small compound on the outskirts of Riyadh, the Saudi government is exploring new ways to combat extremism.
This is still a prison, run by the Ministry of Interior and housed inside secure premises with high perimeter walls and barbed wire, but the Saudi authorities prefer to call it a "care centre" and refer to prisoners as "beneficiaries".
This is not what you would imagine when you think of a typical Saudi jail.
Inside, prisoners enjoy access to wide-ranging recreational facilities including their own swimming pools, video games and table tennis.
In return for the more relaxed environment, prisoners have to attend religious education classes where Islamic scholars challenge their views.
The thinking behind the new initiative is to fight al-Qaeda's ideology by convincing militant Islamists they have a distorted view of Islam.
The Ministry of Interior oversees the new scheme and has created the Ideological Security Unit (ISU) dedicated to co-ordinating their efforts.
"You cannot defeat an ideology by force. You have to fight ideas with ideas," says Abdul-Rahman Hadlaq, ISU director.
But the centre goes beyond just debating ideas. It also encourages prisoners to express their "softer side" by running art therapy classes where inmates find alternative ways to express themselves.

Saudi authorities are keen to stress that any convicted Islamist will be offered a chance at rehabilitation, regardless of past crimes.
Ahmed Shayea drove a massive truck bomb into the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad in August 2003, killing nine people and injuring more than 60.

As Muslim extremists, the inmates would have shunned representative art. It was the first major bombing carried out by the insurgency and was designed to announce al-Qaeda's arrival in Iraq.
Shayea survived the bombing and was held at the care centre after being repatriated from Iraq by US forces.
"I am now an enemy of al-Qaeda. I believe God saved me to deliver this message," says the former militant.
Families are also heavily involved in the rehabilitation of their loved ones. The authorities encourage them to make regular visits to the centre and inmates are allowed to make occasional visits home unescorted on the understanding that they will return later.
It is designed to prepare prisoners for their eventual release while building trust between them and the government. It has proved particularly relevant for Saudis being repatriated from the detention centre run by the US military at Guantanamo Bay.
After returning to the Kingdom they are typically held at the care centre for a few months before being finally released.
"It prepared me to go back into society gradually. You cannot just go from Guantanamo back to normal life. It's too difficult. Everything changed. Saudi Arabia changed. The whole world changed," says Juma Muhammad Dossari who spent six years in Guantanamo Bay.
"I have a great wife. She tells me to forget Guantanamo. She says: 'Just forget it'. She says: 'You're a new man. You have a new life. You have your family. Focus on that.' That makes me feel much better."
Financial arrangement

Ahmed Shayea received major plastic surgery after surviving his bomb attackSince its creation no-one from the care centre has reoffended.
But the support received by prisoners on their release suggests their reasons for maintaining good behaviour might not always reflect genuine ideological change.
Graduates can typically expect the government to meet the cost of their wedding and have also enjoyed home refurbishments along with new cars.
It might sound alarming to outsiders, but most Saudis are comfortable with the arrangement.
"As a [Western] person you might question this - but when I put on my Saudi hat, I think, it was the right decision" says Khalid al-Maeena, editor of the English-language Arab News.
"We are a patriarchal society. These people are sons of the soil. When a son makes a mistake, the father forgives him and the King has pardoned them."
The centre has only been open for 18 months and most of those currently passing through it are al-Qaeda's foot soldiers, not its ideologues.
Convincing those people to change their minds might take a lot more than video games, Pepsi and ping-pong.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

AFRICANS REJECT MUGABE SANCTIONS !

Mr Mbeki reportedly believes sanctions could lead to conflict.
African leaders have told the G8 group of nations meeting in Japan that they oppose sanctions being imposed on Zimbabwe following controversial polls.
"I said that sanctions... wouldn't change the regime," Senegal's leader Abdoulaye Wade told AFP news agency.
South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki reportedly told G8 leaders that UN sanctions could lead to civil war.
The US and UK are pushing for the UN Security Council to tighten targeted sanctions this week.
On Monday, Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete, who also heads the African Union, said African leaders favoured some sort of power-sharing government.
Isolating and demonising Zimbabwe is not in the best interests of anyone
Bright MatongaDeputy information minister
Meanwhile, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change has denied reports it is ready to resume talks with the government.
The MDC says 5,000 of its members are missing and more than 100 of its supporters have been murdered since a first round of elections in March.
President Robert Mugabe went on to win a run-off as the MDC pulled out of the June run-off, citing state-sponsored violence.
'Sham'
In a closed door meeting with G8 leaders, the UK Guardian newspaper reports that Mr Mbeki warned that Zimbabwe could descend into civil war if tougher sanctions were imposed.

Robert Mugabe has said the opposition must accept him as president
"Some African leaders mentioned that we should bear in mind that Mugabe will retire in a few years. Putting pressure on Zimbabwe, including sanctions, might lead to internal conflict. We should be discreet and careful," a spokesman for Japan told the paper.
The UK and US want to tighten targeted sanctions against Mr Mugabe and his close allies, as well as impose an arms embargo.
Mr Wade, one of seven African leaders at the G8 summit, said applying sanctions should be delayed "for two or three months" to allow for mediation.
Mr Kikwete said at the G8 summit: "We are saying no party can govern alone in Zimbabwe and therefore the parties have to work together, come out to work together in a government and then look at the future of their country together."
The state-owned Herald newspaper quotes Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa as saying that South-African talks would resume shortly but this has been denied by the MDC.
Mr Mbeki is the chief regional negotiator on Zimbabwe, and has been trying to persuade both sides to form a unity government.
He was in Harare over the weekend to hold talks, but MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai did not attend, saying meeting Mr Mugabe at State House would mean recognising his legitimacy as president.
The African Union last week ignored calls to condemn Mr Mugabe's re-election and called for a power-sharing government to be set up.
US President George W Bush described the election as a "sham".
The Zimbabwean government blames interference from Western countries for delaying a solution to the country's political impasse.
"It is the UK that is pushing for sanctions, but isolating and demonising Zimbabwe is not in the best interests of anyone. They should treat Zimbabwe as a partner rather than an enemy," South Africa's News24 website quotes Zimbabwe's Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga as saying.
Shortly after Mr Mbeki left Zimbabwe on Sunday, armed militia raided two camps for people fleeing the post-election violence.
At one camp, masked men in army fatigues beat up people who had previously sought refuge at the South African embassy, a witness said.
A small number of African states has joined the European Union, the US and other Western nations in criticising the way the election was run.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

MURDER SUSPECT TREATED FOR BURNS !

A suspect arrested over the killing of two French students is being treated for burns to his hands and face.
Gabriel Ferez and Laurent Bonomo, both 23, were stabbed and burnt in an attack at a rented bedsit in New Cross, south-east London, on 29 June.
Their bodies were discovered in the property, which had been set alight after the murders.
The 33-year-old man handed himself to police and has been treated in hospital for his injuries.
A 21-year-old man arrested on Saturday was released without charge.
The badly burnt bodies of Mr Bonomo, from Velaux, near Marseille and Mr Ferez, from Prouzel, near Amiens, were found with more than 240 stab wounds.
Silent march
Both men were biochemistry students and were in the third year of their masters degrees at Polytech Clermont-Ferrand in central France.
They were in London to take part in a research project at Imperial College and were due to return home soon.
Students and staff from the French institute took part in a silent march in Clermont-Ferrand on Monday as a mark of respect for the two men.
Claude Gilles Dussap, the Polytech director, said it was vital that students continued to work with each other.

"One of the messages of the silent march is certainly to say that European students will always collaborate with each other wherever that maybe, London, Helsinki, Copenhagen or whatever.
"It's the only way to make scientific and technical progress."
Mr Ferez's parents said in a statement to those behind the killings: "Rest assured that we will not leave you in peace."
They also said his killer would "not be able to live in hiding forever".
Games consoles
Post-mortem examinations gave the cause of death in both cases as multiple stab wounds to the head, neck and torso.
Tests also revealed Mr Bonomo suffered 80 wounds after he died.
The flat in Sterling Gardens, New Cross, which Mr Bonomo was renting, had been burgled on 23 June and a laptop was stolen.
Detectives believe their bank cards and two Sony PSP games consoles were taken on the day the pair were killed.
They have urged anyone who has been offered games consoles stolen from the flat to come forward.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

G8 VOWS TO HALVE GREENHOUSE GASES !

There have been deep divisions over how to curb global emissions.
World leaders have agreed to set a global target of cutting carbon emissions by at least 50% by 2050 in an effort to tackle global warming.
Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who is hosting a summit of the Group of Eight industrialised nations, announced the deal after all-night negotiations.
Last year's G8 summit pledged only to "seriously consider" the cuts.
The leaders have also expressed serious concerns about the threat posed to the global economy by soaring oil prices.
But the leaders said they remained positive about the long-term resilience of their economies, so long as countries resisted the introduction of trade barriers.

The summit is taking place in Toyako, on the Japanese island of Hokkaido.
Leaders from the G8 nations - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States - are being joined by counterparts from some 15 other countries.
Climate change has been one of the stickiest issues tackled by the G8 leaders, with divisions over what targets should be set and what would be expected of developing countries.
In a joint statement, the G8 leaders said they would work with nearly 200 states in United Nations climate change talks to adopt a goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
They also said that mid-term targets and national plans would be needed to achieve their aim.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

COCA-COLA DEFENDS OLYMPICS DEAL !

Sponsors are standing firm despite protests over Beijing's Tibet policy.
The chairman of soft drinks giant Coca-Cola has defended the firm's Olympic sponsorship in Beijing despite protests about China's role in Tibet.
Neville Isdell told the BBC the firm supported the "credo of the Olympic movement", and agreed deals well before it knew where each Games would be held.
The company, whose Olympic involvement dates back to 1928, was also a sponsor for the 1936 Games in Berlin.
Mr Isdell said he would have agreed to that deal too, had he been in charge.
"The sponsorship would have been committed four or five years ahead of that, and don't forget Neville Chamberlain was in Berlin on a very popular mission to talk to Hitler," he said.
"Not everything was known in 1938 and the Olympics were in 1936."
Coca-Cola's relationship with the Games began with the 1928 Games in Amsterdam.

Other big brands associated with the Games include Adidas, McDonald's, Kodak and VW.

This year, sponsors have had to deflect negative publicity after some of the international legs of the Olympic torch relay suffered violent protests over Chinese rule in Tibet.
Reebok, which is owned by Adidas and is outfitting 250 Games participants, has decided against making its athletes available for press conferences or one-on-one interviews during the event.
Mr Isdell said Coca-Cola sponsored each event before knowing where the Games would be held.
"What we support is not actually individual governments but the whole aura that surrounds the Olympics and the credo of the Olympic movement," he said.
Despite the widespread protests about the China's stance on Tibet and its role in the crisis in Darfur, Coca-Cola did not reconsider its Olympic pact, he said.
"What we are about is the broader context of what the Olympics brings to every country that it takes place in."
Mr Isdell believes the Beijing Olympics will help China open up to the world and bring about change.
"Look back in history, and you will see that China stagnated when it closed itself off to the world," he added.

With one month to go, Mr Isdell said the company remains committed to China's Games and he aims to carry the symbolic torch on the opening day.
"The Olympic torch was a symbol of peace. It was developed originally around the Greek Olympics to stop the warring that was going on between different factions in Greece at that time."
"There are people who want it to communicate something different and are trying to use that symbolism for issues that may have a very fair resonance. But I don't believe it is right to use those symbols of peace for another cause."
Mr Isdell said Coca-Cola's sponsorship strategy was based on moral principles.
"I believe the Olympics are a force for good and if they were not a force for good, we would not sponsor them."
The firm also rebuffs claims about the healthiness of its drinks, blaming a lack of exercise in the developed world for serious obesity problems.
"It is about physical activity and if you look at the overall calorie intake around the world it has not increased in the developed world. What has happened is that the level of physical activity has decreased," Mr Isdell said.
Coca-Cola argues that, as one of the world's biggest brands, public perception of its social and environmental credentials is often wrong.
"We have 1,000 factories around the world," Mr Isdell said. "We are a local business with a very, very high level of local input - normally 85%. Therefore that minimises our carbon footprint."
The company is tackling rising food costs and is also considering price rises to absorb the impact of higher commodity costs, such as corn syrup used in its drinks.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

MYTHS OF THE MISSILE CRISIS !

By Michael Dobbs Author of One Minute To Midnight.

The Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 is the best documented case study of decision-making by a United States president at a time of grave international peril.
Unfortunately, those 13 tension-filled days when the world stood on the brink of a nuclear precipice have become encrusted with myth and political spin.

Over the last three years, I spent thousands of hours interviewing missile crisis veterans and combing through archives in the US, Russia, Cuba, and Britain to assemble a minute-by-minute account of the crisis.
In the process, I uncovered numerous examples of bad information flowing into, and out of, the White House. "What the president didn't know, and when he didn't know it" was a recurring theme in my research.
My conclusion: the beginning of wisdom for any president - from John F Kennedy to George W Bush - is to understand that you are groping about in the dark.

It turns out that much of what we think we know about one of the most studied episodes in modern history is either inaccurate or incomplete. Even more alarming, much of what Kennedy thought he knew about Soviet actions and motivations rested on flawed intelligence reports.
Far from being an example of "matchlessly calibrated" diplomacy - a term used by Camelot historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr - the missile crisis is better understood as a prime illustration of the ever-present "screwup factor" in world affairs.

Here is a short list of some of the myths surrounding the Cuban missile crisis:
The "eyeball to eyeball" myth. The notion that US warships were minutes away from a confrontation with Soviet freighters transporting missiles to Cuba has persisted for over 45 years. The reported comment of Secretary of State Dean Rusk: "We were eyeball to eyeball, and the other fellow just blinked" - has become part of missile crisis mythology.

John F Kennedy makes a national television speech 22 October 1962
The eyeball to eyeball moment is described in some detail in Robert F Kennedy's memoir, Thirteen Days, and Graham Allison's political science classic, Essence of Decision.
Declassified CIA records and Russian archives show that it never happened. The Soviet missile-carrying ships were at least 500 nautical miles away from the quarantine line at the time of the supposed confrontation, steaming back toward the Soviet Union.
By using intelligence reports to plot the positions of Soviet ships, I was stunned to discover that Khrushchev took the decision to avoid a confrontation with the US Navy more than 24 hours earlier.
'We knew the facts'
The "we knew the facts" myth. This was part of the Kennedy spin in the immediate aftermath of the crisis. It is true that the president received good (if belated) intelligence on the status of Soviet medium-range missiles on Cuba capable of hitting targets in the US.
But he was grossly misinformed about the numbers of Soviet troops on the island, and the fact that they were equipped with tactical nuclear weapons, which could have been used to wipe out an American invading force.
Based on interviews with Soviet participants and American intelligence records, I show that the Soviets deployed nuclear cruise missiles to within 15 miles of the Guantanamo naval base on the night of 26-27 October. The Soviets had sent 80 14-kiloton cruise missile warheads (roughly the size of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima) to Cuba for local battlefield use.

FKR nuclear cruise missile, similar to the ones targeted on Guantanamo during the crisis
Defense secretary Robert McNamara told JFK on 20 October that there were 6,000 to 8,000 Soviet "technicians" on Cuba. In fact, there were 43,000 heavily armed Soviet troops on the island at this point.
In control?
The "fully in control" myth. While there is no evidence of military insubordination on either the American or the Russian side during the crisis, there are many examples of the inability of both Kennedy and Khrushchev to fully control their own forces. Any one of these incidents could have led to a nuclear exchange.
On the American side, there is the extraordinary case of Captain Charles Maultsby, a U-2 pilot who blundered over the Soviet Union at the height of the crisis on 27 October after being sent on a mission to the North Pole to monitor Soviet nuclear tests.
Declassified US documents reveal that Maultsby spent 74 minutes in Soviet air space, causing the Russians to scramble half a dozen Mig fighters in response. The Air Force failed to inform the president of what had happened until half an hour after he left Soviet air space.
On the Russian side, communications were so bad that Khrushchev could only exercise tenuous control over his troops on Cuba. The nuclear missiles aimed at Guantanamo were under the command of a major. There were no locks or codes to prevent them being fired.
Today, there is no longer such a thing as strategy, there is only crisis management
Robert McNamara
The happy outcome to the crisis - with Khrushchev withdrawing his missiles and no nuclear exchange - engendered a spate of hubris among "the best and the brightest".
McNamara declared: "Today, there is no longer such a thing as strategy, there is only crisis management." McNamara and others attempted to put these lessons into practice in Vietnam, with disastrous results.
Fortunately, Kennedy did not believe his own spin. His own prior experience - both as a US Navy lieutenant in World War II and the Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1961 - had taught him to react sceptically to the assurances of the military brass. He moved decisively to bring the crisis to an end by secretly offering to match a withdrawal of Soviet missiles from Cuba with a dismantling of US Jupiters in Turkey.
JFK understood, better than any of his advisers, that events were spiralling out of control by 27 October, the day that became known as "Black Saturday". He knew that the chances of something going drastically wrong increase exponentially the closer you get to actual fighting. In a war, anything can, and usually does, happen - as we have seen repeatedly in Iraq.
Kennedy knew that crisis management was a myth, and that there is no margin for error in preparing for a nuclear war.
That is the abiding lesson of the Cuban missile crisis.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

POLICE TO RELEASE MADELEINE FILES !

Leicestershire Police have agreed to release files on the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann to her parents.
The release of evidence to Kate and Gerry McCann comes after the couple dropped a High Court bid to force it.
Portuguese media last week reported the investigation would be closed because of a lack of evidence.
Madeleine, of Rothley, Leics, went missing in Praia da Luz on 3 May 2007. She was three years old at the time.
Legal challenge
The McCanns' lawyer, Tim Scott QC, confirmed that the information related to telephone calls made to their solicitors and passed on to Leicestershire Constabulary's incident room during the early stages of the inquiry.
The force's chief constable has now agreed to provide contact details and a summary of the information provided by those early callers.
Speaking outside the High Court in London the family's spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, described the 81 pieces of information that the police had agreed to hand over as "potential new leads" that could help in the search for the missing toddler.
I ponder whether that person has a conscience or any feeling of guilt or remorse... about the hurt that has been caused to an innocent little girl - Mrs Justice HoggHigh Court judge.
He said: "Kate and Gerry McCann welcome this compromise reached with the police. If we hadn't gone to court we wouldn't have these 81 pieces coming in.
"That information now goes to our private investigators, who will work on it, all as a priority. Anyone of those could unlock the information that could lead to Madeleine being found."
James Lewis QC, for the police, it was "vital" to balance the understandable desire of the McCanns to have as much information as possible against the risks of compromising the continuing criminal investigation, damaging future international co-operation and breaching Portuguese law.
He added that the material to be disclosed consisted of 81 pieces of information out of more than 11,000.
Madeleine's parents were not at the hearing and Mrs Justice Hogg, presiding, said she had not requested their attendance because "they have suffered enough and I wished to ease their burden".
She urged anyone with information on the case to come forward: "There is, of course, one person who knows what has happened to Madeleine and where she may be found.
"I ponder about that person - whether that person has a heart and might understand what it must be like for Madeleine to have been taken and secreted from her parents and siblings and those she loved and felt secure with.

"Whether that person has a conscience or any feeling of guilt or remorse or even cares about the hurt that has been caused to an innocent little girl, and whether that person has a faith or belief and what explanation or justification they might give to God.
"I entreat that person, whoever they may be, to show mercy and compassion and come forward now and tell us where Madeleine is to be found. I hope she will be found soon, alive and well."
Mr Scott told the judge there was no proof that Madeleine was alive, "but there is not a scrap of evidence that she is not".
Case 'shelved'
On Tuesday, the Portuguese attorney general denied a decision had yet been taken to close the investigation into Madeleine's disappearance.
It followed Portuguese newspaper reports that police would "archive" or "shelve" the case, meaning they would no longer devote resources to investigating it, because of a lack of evidence.
Kate and Gerry McCann remain as official suspects - "arguidos" in Portuguese legal jargon - in the inquiry, along with a third man, Robert Murat.
If the case were to be closed, the McCann family spokesman said, their arguido status should be lifted "as a priority" and all the files of information held by investigators handed over.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

U.N. TROOPS IN CONGO GOLD WARNING !

By Martin Plaut - BBC News.

Three Indian army officers have been let off with a warning over allegations of gold trafficking while they were UN peacekeepers in the DR Congo.
The allegations, first revealed by the BBC, were part of a wider investigation carried out by the UN.
A UN report said there was evidence that Indian troops in eastern Congo had traded gold and drugs with a militia involved in the Rwandan genocide.
The UN decided there was evidence for only one minor charge.
Some Indian soldiers were alleged to have traded gold with the militia, bought drugs from them and even flown a UN helicopter into the Virunga National Park, where they exchanged ammunition for ivory.
An accusation that three Indian officers had illegally detained and assaulted a Congolese trader for selling them fake gold dust was the only charge the UN decided had sufficient evidence.
Those soldiers have been let off with a warning.
Critics of the UN will argue that this is exactly what they expected and proves that allegations, no matter how serious, seldom result in the disciplining of the troops under its command.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

Cathy Buckle's Weekly Letter From Zimbabwe !

Simply sit down !

Saturday 5th July 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

It is now clear that the will of the Zimbabwean people as expressed in the March 29th elections has been ignored and, as a result we find ourselves in the deepest crisis. Hundreds of people: men, women and children have started arriving at foreign embassies in Harare, begging for temporary refuge and humanitarian assistance. First it was the South African embassy, then the American embassy: crowds of people who are cold, tired, homeless, hungry and frightened and who have nowhere else to go and no one to turn to. They don't shout, scream, protest and demand, instead they simply sit down on the roadside and wait patiently for someone to help them.

Such is the tragic image of our broken, desperate people that even for those of us living here, the ruination of ordinary lives and the suffering that people are enduring is utterly heartbreaking. Everyday holds tears and trauma and the most common phrase in our lives is: "We are in God's hands."

The MDC say that a quarter of a million people have been displaced from their homes since the end of March. It is undoubtable that thousands more have by now fled for our borders and crossed over into Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia and South Africa - legally and illegally. They have done this to stay alive and unless something happens to change the situation urgently, hundreds of thousands of others will have no choice but to follow the exodus to our borders.

This morning, as I write this letter, hundreds upon hundreds of people are crowded outside banks across the country desperately trying to withdraw their own money. This is because most shops no longer accept cheques and the Governor of the Reserve Bank has limited daily withdrawals per person to one hundred billion dollars. With one hundred billion dollars you can, today only, buy just three single blood pressure tablets. Or, today only, you can buy one copy of a local weekly newspaper and and two small green onions. In my home town, even if you had the money, there is almost no food left to buy. In the week since Mr Mugabe was again sworn in as President, our supermarkets have become emptier than ever. There are no dry staple goods at all, no milk or eggs and no wheat or flour. In my home town the main bakery is closed and we've had no bread for over a fortnight.

This is why hundreds and thousands of people now have no choice but to leave the country. It is truly a most desperate situation and people from all walks of life are in dire need of help - primarily for food and life preserving medicines but also for shelter and protection. We hear the words from abroad and from the AU, the UN and some of our neighbours but we don't need words, we need help and we need it now, literally to save lives.

Until next week, thank you for reading, with love, cathy

G8 LEADERS FACE SERIES OF CRISES !

This year's G8 summit is one of the most heavily guarded ever.
Rising food and oil costs, an uncertain global economy, climate change and Zimbabwe's political crisis face the G8 leaders who are gathering in Japan.
The summit is being held at a secluded resort on the northern island of Hokkaido guarded by some 20,000 police.
Protesters have been gathering ahead of the three-day forum starting on Monday.
A US official said the gathering was likely to "strongly condemn" Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe over a disputed presidential election run-off vote.
The Group of Eight (G8) consists of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

G8 summit: the key issues
In Pictures: G8 protests
Profile: G8

Leaders begin arriving on Sunday. US President George W Bush arrived in time to celebrate his 62nd birthday in Japan.
China, India and South Africa will be among other key nations attending.
Japan has spent a record sum of money and deployed about 20,000 police to seal off the summit at the remote lakeside resort of Toyako.
Several thousand demonstrators marched through Sapporo, the city closest to the venue, on Saturday, demanding that G8 leaders take action on global warming, poverty and rising food prices.
Four people were arrested in minor scuffles with police.
Violent anti-globalisation marches have marred past G8 meetings.
Last year, Japanese officials said this summit would be about climate change and reaching agreement on a post-Kyoto Accord framework to cut greenhouse gas emissions, says the BBC's Chris Hogg in Tokyo.
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda had said he would like to get agreement on 50% overall reductions in greenhouse gases by 2050.
But the rising food and oil prices and their effect on the global economy and the world's poorest nations have moved up the agenda and to address them, China, India and several African nations have been invited to attend.
Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported that the G8 countries wanted to create a system of food reserves that would act to stabilise prices.
There has been a number of food riots in a range of countries over prices that the World Bank says have doubled in the past three years.
Another key issue will be North Korea's nuclear programme.
Mr Bush will meet Mr Fukuda amid Japanese concern that the North's recent declaration of its nuclear activities has led the US to signal removing Pyongyang from a terror blacklist.

South African President Thabo Mbeki will attend, fresh from crisis discussions in Zimbabwe on Saturday with President Robert Mugabe about last month's disputed election.
He has been the chief regional negotiator on the Zimbabwe crisis, and has been trying to persuade Mr Mugabe to form a government of national unity.
The main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, pulled out of last month's second round presidential election vote, citing campaign violence.
On the way to Japan, a White House official said that the G8 would "strongly condemn what Mugabe has done".
A small group of African states has joined the European Union, the US and other Western nations in criticising the way the election was run.

"SAYINGS" !

"NO ONE IS USELESS IN THIS WORLD

WHO LIGHTENS THE BURDENS OF OTHERS" !

_______________

MBEKI IN HARARE FOR CRISIS TALKS !

Robert Mugabe has said the opposition must accept him as president.
South Africa's Thabo Mbeki is in Harare, where he is reported to have met Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and members of an opposition faction.
Mr Mbeki has been the chief regional negotiator on the Zimbabwe crisis, and has been trying to persuade Mr Mugabe to form a government of national unity.
Mr Mugabe met leaders of a dissident faction that split from the main opposition MDC, an AFP reporter said.
Earlier, video emerged of vote rigging in last month's election.
In footage secretly filmed by a prison guard, he and fellow prison officers were shown being forced to vote for President Robert Mugabe in front of superior officers at the jail.
The guard, Shepherd Yuda, filmed the vote-rigging in a production for Guardian Films. He has now fled Zimbabwe.
Political crisis
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party pulled out of the presidential run-off vote, citing campaign violence.
The party says 5,000 of its members are still missing.
Mr Mugabe has said the opposition must accept him as leader before any talks can take place on ending the country's political crisis.
According to AFP, Mr Mbeki met members of a dissident faction of the MDC on Saturday.
They included the faction's leader, Arthur Mutambara, its secretary-general, Welshman Ncube, and the latter's deputy, Priscilla Misihairibwi-Mushonga.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

U.S. CANDIDATES PRACTISE THEIR U-TURNS !

By Max Deveson BBC News, Washington.

In order to pass their political driving test, sucessful politicians need to be masters of one tricky manoeuvre in particular - the U-turn.

The candidates have shifted their positions on a number of policies.
The contenders in this year's US presidential election are no exceptions - both John McCain and Barack Obama have engaged in some nifty repositioning.
Mr McCain's U-turns have mostly increased his appeal to the Republican Party's base, placing him on a rightward trajectory.
Barack Obama has been performing a more traditional manoeuvre: running to the left during the primaries, when party activists need to be wooed, then shifting to the centre once the nomination is clinched.
Flip-flopping politicians will always attract charges of hypocrisy and opportunism: it may be worth it if it helps them win over undecided voters in the middle, but when the goal is to shore up their political base, the benefits are much less clear.

Here are some examples.

JOHN MCCAIN

Having long been a member of his party's more moderate wing on a number of issues, Mr McCain began adopting more right-wing positions during the primary campaign.
Immigration
Last year, Mr McCain was one of the key backers of President Bush's plan for "comprehensive immigration reform", which would have created "paths to citizenship" for illegal immigrants, while investing more money in border security.
The plan was very unpopular with the Republican rank-and-file, and Senate Republicans succeeded in blocking the scheme.
During the primaries, Mr McCain announced that his immigration focus would be on securing America's borders, rather than on giving iillegal immigrants the chance to become US citizens.
"I understand why you would call it a, quote, shift," McCain told reporters in November 2007.
"I say it is a lesson learned about what the American people's priorities are. And their priority is to secure the borders."
Christian right
Another McCain, quote, shift was in his relationship with the religious right of his party.
During his 2000 bid for the Republican nomination, relations between Mr McCain and Christian Coalition founder Jerry Falwell were notoriously fractious.
The Arizona senator memorably described Mr Falwell and fellow members of the religious right as "agents of intolerance".
But in 2006, ahead of his second presidential run, Mr McCain delivered the commencement address at Mr Falwell's Liberty University, after which he attended a small private party hosted by his former political adversary.
Interrogation rules
More recently, Mr McCain angered his former allies in the political centre by supporting a bill exempting the CIA from following the same rules on interrogation as the US Army.
Guantanamo
Mr McCain was one of the most prominent Republican voices opposed to the Bush administration's detention policy in Guantanamo Bay.
But when the Supreme Court recently ruled that Guantanamo detainees should have access to US courts, Mr McCain described it as "one of the worst decisions in the history of the country".
Oil drilling
Since sewing up the Republican nomination in March, Mr McCain - one of only a few prominent Republicans to accept the argument that human activity is causing climate change - has dropped his previous objection to lifting the ban on oil exploration off the coast of the US.

BARACK OBAMA

Since clinching the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama has also been making headlines for his policy shifts.
Campaign finance
Last month he announced that he would be rejecting public financing for his campaign, and would instead rely on private donations.
The McCain camp accused Mr Obama of "going back on his word", although Mr Obama insisted that he had never made a promise to stay in the public finance system.
Surveillance programme
Mr Obama also raised eyebrows when he announced that he would not be opposing a bill going through Congress giving immunity to telephone companies involved in the Bush administration's controversial warrantless wiretap programme.
His decision angered many of his supporters on the left, who accused him of going back on his 2007 pledge "to support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies".
Gun control
When the Supreme Court decided to overturn Washington DC's handgun ban, Mr Obama declared that the ruling "provide[d] much-needed guidance", despite having previously argued (in a written answer that he says was drafted by an aide and which he had not approved) that the ban was constitutional.
Iraq
Withdrawing troops from Iraq has long been one of the central planks of Mr Obama's campaign, and was something that set him apart from other Democratic candidates running for the party's presidential nomination.
Since his campaign began, however, conditions in Iraq have changed, violence has reduced, and some commentators have suggested that Mr Obama's position is out of date.
Mr Obama himself has announced that he plans to visit Iraq, where he will make "a thorough assessment" which could lead him to "refine" his policy.
Some critics have seized on this as an indication that Mr Obama is laying the groundwork for a change in position.
Free trade
Mr Obama recently hinted to Fortune magazine that his strong anti-free trade rhetoric during the primaries may not be reflected in his actual trade policy should he become president.
His remarks are a neat summation of the pressures and temptations that lead politicians to shift their positions during the process of running for office.
"Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified," he said.
"Politicians are always guilty of that, and I don't exempt myself."
BBC NEWS REPORT.

QUEEN MOTHER 'PACK GIN' NOTE SOLD !

Mr Tallon kept all the correspondence he received from the royals.
A note in which the Queen Mother asked her aide to pack gin and Dubonnet has sold for £16,000 - well over the expected £3,000.
It was the most sought-after item in the unique collection of royal letters, photographs and artefacts sold at auction on Saturday.
The items were discovered after the death of former royal servant William Tallon, known as Backstairs Billy.
He was in service for 52 years, and was a favourite of the Queen Mother.
The hand-written note which sparked a telephone bidding war read: "I think that I will take two small bottles of Dubonnet and gin with me this morning, in case it is needed."
About 400 people followed proceedings in the auction room of Reeman Dansie in Colchester, Essex, with another 1,000 placing bids by phone and the internet.
Before the auction began it was thought that the collection could fetch at least £250,000.
But with many lots selling for 15% above the estimated price, auctioneer James Grinter said that £500,000 was a more likely total.

In pictures: Royal items auction

Also in demand was a letter sent to Mr Tallon by Princess Diana after the birth of Prince William.
The princess wrote: "We are not sure at the moment what has hit us, except a very strong pair of lungs."
That sold for £5,000 to a telephone bidder.
The auction is an intimate look into Mr Tallon's life as a royal insider. He joined the royal household aged 15, and kept every thank-you letter, Christmas card and invitation he received.
He never spoke publicly about the royals, and turned down requests to write a book or be interviewed. He died last November aged 72.
Janet Canon, of Reeman Dansie, said bidders had flown in from overseas, especially from the United States and Canada, to take part.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman would not comment on the sale.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

WAXWORK HITLER BEHEADED IN BERLIN !

Hitler's desk was supposed to keep people away from the waxwork.
A man has been arrested after tearing the head off a wax figure of Adolf Hitler at a newly opened branch of Madame Tussauds in Berlin.
The 41-year-old man was held after attacking the waxwork, only hours after the attraction opened on Saturday.
The inclusion of Hitler in the exhibition has aroused controversy in a country where Nazi symbols are banned.
But the exhibition's organiser said it could hardly depict German history without portraying Hitler.
It pointed out that Hitler waxwork depicted him in the hours before his suicide, a defeated figure slumped in his bunker as the Red Army reached Berlin.
The Fuhrer was positioned behind a table, which was supposed to prevent visitors posing with the statue - or damaging it.

"We did surveys while we were planning the exhibition on the street with Berliners and with tourists, and the result was quite clear that Hitler is one of the figures that they want to see," said Madame Tussauds Natalie Ruoss.
"Seeing as we are portraying the history of Germany we could hardly have left him out... we want to show the reality," she said.
Despite some criticism in the media, Stephen Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said he did not object to Hitler being shown, as long as it was done properly.
"Hitler should not become a tourist attraction but if this exhibition helps to some extent normalise the way of dealing with Hitler, as a kind of a demystification, let's try it," Mr Kramer told the AFP news agency.
"Erasing him from history is not going to bring the perished ones back, it's not going to heal the damage that he did, the crimes that he did. That would be counter-productive," he said.
The waxwork museum also includes other German historical figures like Otto von Bismarck, Karl Marx, Beethoven, Bach and Einstein.
The foreigners featured include Winston Churchill, Mikhail Gorbachev and Tom Cruise.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

FILM OF ZIMBABWE 'VOTE RIGGING' !

By Alix Kroeger - BBC News.

The film alleges there was no secrecy in votes for Robert Mugabe.
New evidence of vote-rigging in last month's presidential election in Zimbabwe has emerged in the form of a secret film made by a prison guard.
The guard, Shepherd Yuda, filmed the vote-rigging at his jail in a production for Guardian Films.
Prison officers, including Mr Yuda, who has now fled Zimbabwe, were forced to vote for President Robert Mugabe by superior officers.
The officers organised a postal ballot and stood over them as they cast votes.
Mr Yuda decided to speak out after the murder of his uncle, an opposition activist, two months ago.
He knew he and his family would have to leave Zimbabwe as a result.
[South African President] Thabo Mbeki has betrayed us. He didn't want to come down hard on Mugabe - Anonymous prison guard

See film on Newsnight (iPlayer)

"This election: I have never seen that type of violence," he says in the film.
"The impact has left a lot of orphans; it has left a lot of people displaced. You cannot expect that from your government."
He secretly filmed a war veteran, Superintendent Shambira, watching as prison officers voted.
Supt Shambira ensured they marked their ballots for Robert Mugabe, and not the opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai.
Supt Shambira then logged each vote against an identification number. There was no secrecy.
All those voting knew Supt Shambira had the power to condemn them as MDC supporters.
Mr Yuda says he had no choice but to vote for Robert Mugabe.
Mr Yuda also spoke to voters on the streets of Harare.
"They're standing right in front of you when you cast your vote," one voter told Mr Yuda. "They watch."
The voter went on: "Shambira definitely sees you vote - there's no way of hiding it. I was thinking I could vote when he wasn't looking, but he was watching like a hawk."
Biti
Among the prisoners is Tendai Biti, a prominent opposition MP and human-rights lawyer.
Mr Yuda filmed him having his leg-irons removed for a court hearing.
Mr Biti, who is awaiting trial on treason charges, was released on bail, but could still face execution.

Mr Mugabe won the run-off election after the opposition pulled out
"You know, I was so touched: for a man of his status to be reduced to such levels, to be put in a criminal institution," Mr Yuda says in the film. "It's very, very sad."
Mr Yuda also captured conversations between prison guards in the run-up to the 27 June run-off election, as tension was increasing.
"In my area, there's a lot of tension," one guard tells him. "Zanu-PF (ruling party) thugs came to my house as soon as I left for work today. They abducted my wife. They took her to the base."
These "bases" are springing up in private houses all over Harare.
Previously they were a feature of rural Zimbabwe; now they have reached the capital.
Ordinary people are abducted and compelled to attend Zanu-PF re-education rallies.
"I am forced to go and guard these bases all through the night, after my shift here," another prison officer says.
"They cordon off the whole street: it becomes a no-go area. These people are killers, the thugs that Zanu-PF are using."
And another guard says the rest of the world should do more to help Zimbabwe.
"It's in the hands of the international community now," he says.
"[South African President] Thabo Mbeki has betrayed us. He didn't want to come down hard on Mugabe. Instead, he kept going on and on about pan-Africanism."
On election day itself, Mr Yuda films a woman who is so fearful that she has pretended to have voted.
She colours her little finger with a pink marker, hoping to simulate the ink used to identify those who have already cast their ballots.
The day after Robert Mugabe's election, Shepherd Yuda and his family began packing, preparing to leave Zimbabwe.
Their lives would have been in danger if they had stayed. They can only begin to think about returning once Mr Mugabe has gone.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CAMEROONIAN IN BAREFOOT PROTEST !

A Cameroonian who has just finished a barefoot trek across the UK told the BBC his sore feet were worth it to raise awareness about African issues.
It took Emmanuel Neba Fuh 17 days to complete the 200km (125 mile)- walk from Derby to Downing Street, the residence of the UK prime minister.
He handed in a letter to the British leader urging policies of prevention rather that cure towards Africa.
Along the way he dropped in at schools to educate "future prime ministers".
The walk was part of a project called "Derby for Africa Initiative" which aims to promote good governance and human rights.
'Petitions of blood'
Born in southern Cameroon where English-speaking secessionists have been campaigning for independence, Mr Neba Fuh said the situation in Africa was "shameful".
I"We have a situation where Africans have been forced to flee their continent - a continent which is rich in all its natural resources but remains economically backward," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
"I think that the pain that I'm feeling cannot be compared to the pain of a young boy at the age 10 forced by security men to have sex with his own mother because his mother is part of a secessionist movement."
He said he walked barefoot not only to raise awareness in the UK about the plight of Africa but he wanted to appeal to the African diaspora to do more for the continent.
When it came to Africa, the United Nations tended to only take notice of petitions "written in blood", he said.
"Many people are dead before something is done. We need something proactive, we need something that can prevent the situations like genocide from happening," he said.

He added that he saw every young person in Britain as a potential leader.
"If we tell them the things that are happening in Africa... when they become that prime minister, that foreign secretary they'll be able to put in place policies that will pave the way for fair trade.
"Polices that will prevent the flow of arms into the hands of dictators; policies that will prevent corruption."
Next year, Mr Neba Fuh, who sought refuge in the UK in 2003, has also vowed to walk barefoot across Africa.
He then intends to collect one million signatures to urge the African Union to adopt a civil rights charter to prevent African leaders from staying in office from more than two terms.
"We think that when leaders stay in power for too long they run short of ideas," he said.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

SUNNI LEADER ATTACKED IN N IRAQ !

Police in Iraq say at least one person has been killed in a truck bomb attack on the home of a Sunni tribal leader known for opposing al-Qaeda extremists.
The attack in al-Qaiyara, south of Mosul, left about 20 people injured, including the presumed target, Sheikh Abdul Razaq al-Waqaa.
Several houses were destroyed in the powerful blast.
In other violence blamed on Sunni militants, at least six were killed in the eastern province of Diyala.
The dead included a member of a US-backed Sunni militia who was manning a checkpoint.
Troops launched an offensive to re-establish control over the Diyala capital Baquba in 2007.
But officials say government successes against Sunni militants elsewhere in Iraq have forced some gunmen back into the province, where they have been regrouping.

BBC NEWS REPORT

AID FOR ZIMBABWE REFUGE SEEKERS !

People outside the embassy say they were displaced in electoral violence.
Aid organisations in Zimbabwe have provided food and other assistance to about 150 men who spent a cold night outside the US embassy in the capital.
About 50 women and children were taken away to shelter elsewhere overnight.
Some said they were seeking asylum after being attacked in electoral violence for supporting the opposition.
Meanwhile, military police have been seen forcibly closing down ruling party bases in townships used to intimidate people ahead of last week's election.
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of last Friday's presidential run-off, which President Robert Mugabe won unopposed, citing state-sponsored political violence.
Zimbabwean journalist Brian Hungwe said President Mugabe is due back from the African Union summit in Egypt.
Ruling party Zanu-PF youths have been mobilising people in the townships around the capital, Harare, to go to the airport to welcome him home, he says.
It has come as a shock to many township residents to see the security forces turning against Zanu-PF supporters, beating them up and telling them to shut their bases, the reporter says.
It is thought, he says, that now that the elections are over, the party wants to get rid of the unpopular bases and disband the militia.
Another 50 people joined the crowd outside the US embassy on Friday morning.

Embassy spokesman Paul Engelstad and Zimbabweans seeking help
They say they have nowhere else to go, but they have not been let inside the embassy grounds.
One man said his house was burned down in Mtoko, north-east of Harare, after the first-round vote.
After he left hospital he took refuge at the MDC's headquarters in Harare, but was evicted by police last week.
Earlier this week, African leaders called for a government of national unity.
But Mr Tsvangirai rejected talks on a unity government, saying the violence must end.
Since last Friday's run-off, the MDC says nine of its supporters have been murdered, hundreds more beaten and forced to leave their homes.
Almost 100 people have been killed and 200,000 left homeless since the MDC won the March vote, the opposition says.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

BRIGHT IDEAS IN THE WILD WEST !

By Jonathan Marcus - Diplomatic correspondent, BBC News.

Aspen, high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado in what used to be the "Wild Wild West" is perhaps an unlikely setting for a festival of ideas.
Nestled between soaring peaks, it was once famed as a frontier silver-mining town. It enjoyed a brief boom towards the end of the 19th Century. But its prosperity was short-lived and it settled into a long period of decline.
But Aspen revived in the years after World War II with a new boom based on tourism - skiing and outdoor pursuits. There are still patches of ice on some of the mountain tops as I sit here even in July.
But ideas also contributed to this resurgence: this high-altitude setting is also the home of some lofty thinking, hosted by the Aspen Institute - organisers of the Ideas Festival - which brings together politicians, academics, artists and people from the world of commerce for a week-long session of brain-storming and debate.
All of these people have come here with one central conviction. It is that ideas matter and especially so in a presidential election year. Men and women can change the world by thinking about problems and by approaching them in new ways.
Audiences clearly share a profound unease about the capacities of their government
Hundreds of people pay to attend - it is probably the most intellectual holiday camp in the world, set on a university-like campus with electric golf carts shuttling back and forth.
The festival opened with several key-note speakers offering brief summaries of their "big ideas"; a kind of smorgasbord for the brain.
Professor Lawrence Lessig of the Stanford Law School focused on what he sees as the corrupting effect of the quest for money in the US political system.
"The most impossible idea that you will hear during the festival will be the one that makes you put trust and faith in our government," he said.
John Holdren of Harvard University issued a clarion call for America to assume leadership in the struggle against climate change.
Senior physician Dr David Katz's big idea was what he called "a food supply for dummies" - simple labelling of all food-stuffs to show what was healthy, with the goal of trying to turn back the rising tide of diabetes and heart disease.
Daily sessions typically begin at 7.45 in the morning: you have to be willing to take your dose of ideas early.

Delegates pondered whether ideas could really make a difference.
What does the audience make of it? Well they seem to lap it up. Many are here for the second or third time. They clearly love the surroundings and love their ability to rub shoulders with the good and the great.
The age range is towards people in their middle years, the clientele clearly prosperous - Aspen is that kind of place.
But their questions are often probing. Speakers are listened to attentively but do not always get an easy ride. The proceedings reach a wider world by way of the web and the Aspen Institute itself has a year-round range of activities and study groups.
But can ideas really make a difference? Again and again speakers - whether from the world of science, industry or the universities - have returned to one theme: the need for leadership.
And audiences clearly share a profound unease about the capacities of their government.
Smart power
I sat chatting with Joe Nye in one of the tented refreshment areas with an electrical storm rumbling in the distance. Professor Nye of Harvard University is an expert on power.
If he could not tell me how to turn some of these ideas into practical policy then no-one could.
Having coined the terms hard and soft power to distinguish between say the Pentagon's military might and the attractive power of America's universities, he subsequently went on to argue the case for the blending of these two kinds of power into a new amalgam - something he now calls smart power.
With the presidential election looming, he is now thinking very hard about leadership.
President George W Bush, he noted, had described himself as "a decider" - the man at the top who makes the decisions. This, said Professor Nye, was old-style leadership. The next president would have to use smart power - a mixture of tools - to prevail in the policy debate.
Both of the contenders for the White House, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, displayed, he said, an attractive tendency to look beyond their own circles for advice.
There is clearly no shortage of ideas, but so far the machinery is not in place to create a new, less hierarchical style of government to put the best of those ideas into practice.
According to Professor Nye, if America ever needed a dose of smart power it is now.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS" !

"BE VIGILANT; GUARD YOUR MIND

AGAINST NEGATIVE THOUGHTS" !

________

CHINA CONFIRMS TIBET ENVOY TALKS !

Western leaders want China to engage in dialogue with the Dalai Lama.
China has confirmed a top official held talks with envoys of the Dalai Lama, in its first statement on the two-day negotiations this week in Beijing.
Du Qinglin, of the Communist Party's United Work Front Department, told the envoys that the door to dialogue was "always open", Xinhua news agency said.
But he said the Dalai Lama should not support "violent criminal activities".
Beijing accuses the exiled leader of orchestrating anti-China protests that erupted in Tibet in March.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner roundly rejects the allegations.
Buddhist monks led anti-Beijing rallies in Lhasa which grew into widespread unrest among Tibetans, both in Tibet and surrounding provinces.
China says rioters killed at least 19 people, but Tibetan exiles say security forces killed dozens of protesters. It was the worst unrest in Tibet for 20 years.
The talks in Beijing this week were the second between the two sides since the violence.

TIBET DIVIDE
China says Tibet was always part of its territory
Tibet enjoyed long periods of autonomy before 20th century
In 1950, China launched a military assault
Opposition to Chinese rule led to a bloody uprising in 1959
Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama fled to India

Q&A: Tibet and China

Two senior envoys from the Tibetan government-in-exile, Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen, travelled to the Chinese capital for the closed-door meeting.
The envoys were now expected to report back to the Dalai Lama on the outcome of the discussions, the government-in-exile said.
Chinese officials gave no details of the talks while they were taking place - including the venue, timing or agenda.
But according to the Xinhua report, Mr Du called on the Dalai Lama not to support activities that interfered with the Olympics or "plots to fan violent criminal activities".
He also told him to curb "terrorist activities" by a Tibetan group, the agency said.
Previous rounds of talks between the two sides have come to nothing.
But in recent months China has come under considerable international pressure to engage in meaningful dialogue with the Dalai Lama.
These talks come only weeks before the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has linked his presence at the opening ceremony in August to progress on the issue of Tibet.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

S.A. MOURNS VICTIMS OF XENOPHOBIA !

The violence erupted in South Africa's townships.
South Africa is holding a day of national mourning to remember those killed during May's xenophobic attacks.
President Thabo Mbeki is due to lead a tribute in the capital, Pretoria, to be attended by religious leaders and relatives of those who died.
More than 60 people died when armed groups in Johannesburg and other cities attacked foreigners, or those believed to be Mozambican or Zimbabwean.
They were blamed for fuelling high unemployment and crime.
It was the worst bloodshed in the county since the end of apartheid in 1994.
Twenty-one South Africans were among the 62 people who died - mistaken by gangs for foreigners.
Tens of thousands of migrants left the country after the attacks, but the border authorities in Mozambique say an average of 3,000 people are now returning to South Africa every day.
The government is trying to reintegrate thousands of foreigners who are living in makeshift camps after fleeing their homes.
The BBC's Mpho Lakaje in Johannesburg says as South Africa remembers those who died, more attacks are being reported.
I don't like those people they bring crime in our country. We belong here they, should go back
Alexandra township resident

Children terrified by xenophobia

On Wednesday, a group from Bangladesh marched to a Pretoria police station after a Bangladeshi shop-owner was attacked by 25 people.
Our correspondent says in the township of Alexandra where the violence started, people are far from ready for reconciliation with immigrants from neighbouring countries.
"They don't belong here OK, so they must leave this country [as] it is difficult to get a job," one male resident told the BBC.
A female resident said: "I don't like those people - they bring crime in our country. We belong here, they should go back to their country."
A Mozambican driver living in Alexandra says he now lives "in fear".
"But there's nothing I can do because there are no jobs in Mozambique," he told the BBC.
"Just last week, foreigners were assaulted here in Alexandra; their music CDs and other personal belongs were stolen. Life has become difficult," he said.
Another Alexandra resident, asked if the day of mourning meant anything to her, said she would be observing it.
"Yes it does because some of the people who died are people from South Africa, yes I should [mourn]," she said.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

KENYA 'FRAUD' MINISTER TOLD TO GO !

Kenya's Finance Minister Amos Kimunya and other officials should be suspended over alleged fraud, says a government inquiry led by the attorney general.
The reports covers the sale of a luxury Nairobi hotel, which was allegedly sold for a third of its value.
On Wednesday night, parliament passed a vote of no confidence in the finance minister and urged him to resign.
Mr Kimunya, a close ally of President Mwai Kibaki, has denied any wrong-doing in the sale of the Grand Regency hotel.
The hotel's sale to a local company with Libyan interests, has led to renewed pressure on Kenya's power-sharing government, set up after violent clashes over disputed elections earlier this year.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who says he was cheated of victory, has led the investigations.
"My hands are totally clean on this transaction," Mr Kimunya told members of parliament during the debate on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Raila Odinga set up a committee headed by Attorney General Amos Wako to investigate the sale, saying no-one - not even himself or the president - would be spared if there was evidence of fraud in the deal.

Raila Odinga said the country's finance minister remains in his post.
The committee also called for the Central Bank governor and the head of the National Security Intelligence Service to step down.
They have also denied any wrong-doing.
It said the sale of the hotel was ""false, fraudulent and designed to deceive", and should be revoked.
The hotel was allegedly sold for about $45 million instead of its recorded valued of $115 million.
Donors have in the past accused Mr Kibaki of failing to keep promises to tackle the rampant corruption in Kenya.
The Grand Regency was recovered from Kamlesh Pattni, the man behind the Goldenberg scandal, in which the government compensated him millions of dollars in a fake gold export scheme.
He surrendered his interest in the hotel, he claims, in exchange for amnesty in connection with outstanding corruption charges against him.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

DENMARK 'WORLD'S HAPPIEST NATION' !

Denmark is the happiest country in the world, according to the latest World Values Survey published by the United States National Science Foundation.
The annual study surveyed people in 97 countries to discover who is happiest.
The survey asked people two simple questions about their happiness and their level of satisfaction with life.
Puerto Rico and Colombia completed the top three happiest nations. Zimbabwe was found to be the least happy, with Russia and Iraq also in the bottom 10.
The study was directed by University of Michigan professor Ronald Inglehart. He says that unlike other studies, which have focused on economic factors, his research has found that financial prosperity is not the only reason for happiness.
"Our research indicates prosperity is linked with happiness. It does contribute," he says, "but it is not the most important factor.
"Personal freedom is even more important, and it's freedom in all kinds of ways. Political freedom, like with democracy and freedom of choice."
The world is becoming a happier place overall, according to the survey, which has been conducted since 1981.

Zimbabwe has suffered hyperinflation and political violence.
Dr Inglehart says that gender equality is also an indicator of happiness, as is rising social tolerance. He says that both of these things have risen dramatically in recent years.
The world's wealthiest nation, the United States, was found to be the world's 16th happiest country, behind Switzerland, Canada and Sweden.
The study also found that the countries at the bottom of the list all struggle with widespread poverty or authoritarian governments.
Zimbabwe, which is gripped by hyperinflation, and has recently seen a controversial presidential election marred by violence, was found to be the least happy nation amongst the countries covered by the survey.

BBC NEWS REPORT.