THE MOST-READ STORIES OF 2008

A look back at the stories that proved the most popular of the year, from the serious to the quirky.

A few were momentous, some were tragic and many were uplifting, but all were read by thousands.

JANUARY

January was dominated by tragic tales and gales.

BBC children's presenter Mark Speight was quizzed by police over the death of his fiancee, Natasha Collins. She was found dead in his flat after an apparent drug overdose, leaving him "absolutely distraught" by his loss.

Attention turned to Britney Spears who was carried out of her home on a stretcher and taken into custody after police were called in a dispute involving her children.

And then there was the death of Heath Ledger. The Australian actor was found dead in his Manhattan apartment, prompting a global outpouring of emotion among his many fans.

Heath Ledger died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs

Just before leaving the show business theme, January was also the month when Jeremy Clarkson lost money after publishing his bank details in his newspaper column.

January was also a big weather month, with stories about flooding, snow and storms.

And the first signs of the coming recession started to become apparent.

The year's bizarre story offerings started with the incredible tale of allegations that twins adopted by separate families as babies had married without knowing they were brother and sister.

FEBRUARY

In February a number of our most-read stories were about the US election campaign, setting the scene for what was undoubtedly one of the biggest stories of the year.

The ugly side of sport and politics took centre stage when Avram Grant received anti-Semitic death threats at Chelsea. Also in February, Manchester United clawed its way up Deloitte's Football Money League to second place behind Real Madrid.

Prince Harry's stint in Afghanistan came to an abrupt end after news of his secret deployment leaked out. He spent 10 weeks serving in Helmand Province, before flying back to the UK amid concerns for his safety when a news blackout deal over his tour of duty was broken by foreign media.

Prince Harry was rumbled in the media while on active service

Showbiz is never far from the headlines, and February is synonymous with Oscars. But you were more interested in who wore what than in who won what.

Also in February, a story about the Bank of England's rate-setting committee cutting interest rates to what now seems like a positively stratospheric 5.25% from 5.5% attracted a lot of interest amid signs of the slowdown in the UK economy.

No month is complete without its quirky favourite, and a tale of an Argentinean girl who gave birth to female triplets for the second time caught your eye. The girl had her first set of female triplets aged 15, having first given birth to a son when she was just 14.

MARCH

March was money month with the budget, markets being rattled by worries about the banking system and Heather Mills' £24.3m divorce settlement with estranged husband Sir Paul McCartney.

Worries about the banking system started to appear in March

A story that Mills gave evidence that was "inconsistent, inaccurate" and "less than candid" attracted more readers than one about her settlement.

Also much read was the tale of a small Cessna plane that crashed on a house in Kent, killing the two pilots and three passengers.

On a lighter note, the story about BBC Radio 4 news reader Charlotte Green suffering a fit giggles was very popular, and prompted a flurry of calls asking for the clip to be played again.

Staying with newsreaders, and the sad story of Carol Barnes taking seriously ill with a stroke generated interest and concern among readers. She died in hospital a few days later.

APRIL

Some of the most-read stories were around the arrest of Karen Matthews over the disappearance of her daughter Shannon, the arrest of Shannon's stepfather on porn charges and the announcement that Karen Matthews would face trial on kidnap charges.

Also making news was the disturbing case of Josef Fritzl, the 73-year-old Austrian man who confessed to imprisoning his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathering her seven children. He also admitted burning the body of a baby that died at the house in Amstetten, Lower Austria.

Josef Fritzl locked his daughter in a cellar for 24 years

Following on from January's stories about the death of actress Natasha Collins, her fiance Mark Speight was found dead after writing suicide notes.

April was true to form with showbiz stories being among the most-read. Perennial favourite Kylie Minogue attracted a lot of eyeballs by discussing the misdiagnosis of her breast cancer.

And the obligatory quirky story was supplied by Brazilian football star Ronaldo. He was alleged to have picked up three prostitutes, only to find they were in fact transvestites.

MAY

The most-read stories this month had a serious feel, with British politics dominating the agenda.

The poor showing by Labour in local elections prompted an admission from Gordon Brown that he was disappointed in the party's performance. David Cameron, on the other hand, hailed the end of the New Labour era.

Boris Johnson made headlines around the world by by becoming the London Mayor. Also adding to Labour's woes was a protest by truck drivers over the level of tax imposed on fuel.

Boris Johnson became the Mayor London

May also saw violence, with Rangers fans rioting in Manchester and Harry Potter actor Rob Knox killed in a street fight in London.

Also well read in May was the jailing of Premier League footballer Joey Barton for assault and affray.

Then there was a tale of space travel, about a Nasa spacecraft sending back historic first pictures of an unexplored region of Mars.

JUNE

Another month, another political row in the headlines. Tory MP David Davis resigned as an MP, promising to fight to regain his seat on a platform of defending "British liberties". There was much less interest in him winning his seat back .

The other dominant issue of the month - as far readers were concerned - was the quality of broadband services in Britain. A story that included a test to establish the speed of your broadband connection rated through the roof. As did the follow-up giving a breakdown of the results of all those speed tests.

Colleen McLoughlin became Mrs Wayne Rooney

The traditional, summer silly season struck early in June with a rash of unusual stories grabbing your attention. There was the story of a baby put up for auction in Germany, a man with 13 people in his Volvo car and the 50 management speak expressions you love to hate.

It was a month of mixed fortunes for footballers. Wayne Rooney got married, but Gazza was sectioned for a second time. Professional footballer Luke McCormick was arrested after two boys were killed in a crash on the M6 in Staffordshire.

JULY

July's most-read story appeared late in the month, when a huge fire destroyed the historic Grand Pier at Weston-super-Mare.

The fire on the pier - picture by Penny Broomhall

A table we prepared on changes to car tax and how much they will cost you also proved exceptionally popular, along with its corresponding story that the changes will affect many millions.

There was a run of tragic stories in July about violent crime. A newly married British doctor was killed and her husband critically injured after they were shot in their Caribbean honeymoon hotel cottage.

And earlier in the month two French research students were found stabbed to death following a flat fire had been tied up and suffered what the police called horrific injuries.

But there was a lucky escape for several hundred people on board a Qantas 747 which made an emergency landing in the Philippines after a large hole appeared in its fuselage.

In offbeat news, back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin and his wife Anne were jailed for more than six years each for fraudulently claiming £250,000, and a teenager apparently found a bat asleep in her bra.

AUGUST

Most read this month was news that convicted paedophile Gary Glitter was ordered to sign the sex offenders' register after arriving back in the UK.

There was an undeniably sombre tone to the other stories that dominated the headlines: Many dead in Madrid plane crash,Big Brother star Goody has cancer and teenager shot dead in supermarket.

Then there was the fire that gutted the family home of millionaire businessman Christopher Foster in Shropshire. Police searched the burnt-out wreck of their home and eventually found the bodies of the family.

Yang Peiyi (L) had the perfect voice, but Lin Miaoke had the perfect face

The Olympics also loomed large, notably the spectacular opening ceremony and the revelation that the star of the show mimed her way through her performance.

It was also the month that Barry George was found not guilty of murdering BBC television presenter Jill Dando outside her London home. He was first convicted in 2001 but an Old Bailey retrial was ordered after doubt was cast on the reliability of gunshot residue evidence.

SEPTEMBER

Fears were high the world was going to end, with the start of the Big Bang experiment.

The Large Hadron Collider might not have caused the earth to disappear into a black hole, but there were definitely plenty of black holes elsewhere as the global economy started to unravel.

The Large Hadron Collider hasn't yet caused a black hole

Lehman Brothers bank filed for bankruptcy in the US, and in the UK HBOS entered into merger talks with Lloyds to prevent its collapse.

Banks were bailed out, but still their shares fell. Stamp duty was axed on houses below £175,000 in an effort to resuscitate the faltering property market. And there was stock market volatility amid the uncertainty.

Fuel prices were still high in September, which was blamed as a factor in the collapse of the airline XL, which left thousands of people stranded.

The high fuel prices also contributed to the utter chaos at a north London service station which gave away £20k of petrol in a publicity stunt.

Another major story was the case of a gunman who killed 10 people at a college in Finland before shooting himself.

OCTOBER

The BBC hit the headlines this month, with the suspension of Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand over a prank phone call.

And then the BBC apologised to actor Andrew Sachs for the "unacceptable and offensive" content of the calls made during a pre-recorded radio show.

Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross sparked a row over taste and decency

Unsurprisingly the financial collapse which dominated the news in September continued in October, with a number of stories among the most read of the month.

Central banks cut interest rates, bank shares took a pounding, US stocks slid to a five year low and UK banks received a £37bn bailout.

The US election started to make its way back up the list of most read stories.

Also getting high-profile coverage was the jailing of death crash footballer Luke McCormick, concern over Kerry Katona's behaviour on television and a plane wreck found that was confirmed as that of adventurer Steve Fossett's.

NOVEMBER

This month was all about votes - Barack Obama winning the US Presidential election and John Sergeant quitting Strictly Come Dancing despite strong public support.

John Sergeant's departure from Strictly caused a stir

The financial situation continued to attract attention, with the chancellor unveiling his public borrowing plans, UK interest rates being slashed to 3% and a blow-by-blow account of the Pre-Budget Report.

Also avidly read was the tragic unfolding of events in the Mumbai attacks.

As ever, a weather story was also very popular with icy conditions and snowfalls prompting many clicks.

And the maxim that sex sells was borne-out by the popularity of a story about model Karolina Kurkova and her missing belly button. Needless to say, it was illustrated with pictures of said model strutting the catwalk in her undies.

The year also drew to a close with a familiar theme - Jeremy Clarkson in trouble. Details of a joke he made about truck drivers murdering prostitutes did brisk business on the site.

DECEMBER

With all the talk of recession and job losses, a story about a Glasgow family where no-one works struck a nerve. As did news that interest rates were being cut to a 57-year low.

Karen Matthews was convicted over the kidnap of her daughter Shannon

A bizarre and tragic story about a drink-driver who killed a father and son in a motorway crash while performing a sex act on himself attracted a lot of attention.

Odd stories about an actor cutting his throat on stage (he survived), and a young Chinese woman left partially deaf following a passionate kiss from her boyfriend proved very popular, and were e-mailed all over the world.

The conclusion of the Shannon Matthews saga drew a large number of readers, with her mother Karen being found guilty of kidnap.

And finally, a challenge we posed and which many of you rose to - could you pass the 11-plus exam?
BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZIMBABWE ACTIVISTS TO STAY JAILED

A Zimbabwean judge has ruled that 16 activists accused of organising military training to topple President Robert Mugabe must remain in jail. The group includes human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, who went missing for three weeks before being brought to court last week.

The police had initially denied they were holding Ms Mukoko, who was seized from her home by a group of armed men.

The abduction and arrests have raised doubts about a power-sharing deal.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai signed a deal to join a unity government in September but this has never been implemented. He says he will pull out of the deal unless the abduction of opposition activists stops.

Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe declared: "This matter remains to be decided in the Supreme Court and the accused cannot be released." He did not rule on the charges themselves.The 16 will appear in court next Monday for a bail hearing, Reuters news agency reports.

The opposition, human rights activists and lawyers all took part in a high-profile campaign for Ms Mukoko, a former state television news-reader, to be taken to court amid fears for her safety.

Some of those detained say they have been tortured while in custody and a judge has ruled that they be allowed to see doctors of their choice. Some first went missing in October, says the AFP news agency.

Last week, a High Court judge ruled that they should be freed but the state appealed against this ruling.

Earlier this week, five more opposition activists were charged with acts of terrorism.

These allegedly included breaking into a police station and bombing the kitchen and then blowing up a nearby toilet.

Opposition Movement for Democratic Change spokesman Nelson Chamisa told the BBC the charges were trumped up as an excuse to crack down on the opposition.

"You can't have a political agreement on one hand and the other you have a cat-and-mouse relationship... trumping up charges against those people you are supposed to be working with in government," he said.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

STUDENT £100bn OVERDRAFT SHOCK!

Mr Moffat said he had been offered £10 compensation by the bank

A student from Ayrshire was left in a state of shock when his online banking statement showed him to be overdrawn by almost £100bn.

Donald Moffat, 38, from Irvine, said that on Tuesday morning his Barclays account was showing two separate withdrawals of £50bn.

The bank said a "technical error" was to blame and apologised.

Mr Moffat said Barclays also offered £10 in compensation for the phone calls he had to make to resolve the error.

The full-time student, who is also a part-time care worker, e-mailed a copy of his bank statement to BBC Scotland.

It showed a debit balance on 30 December of just under £100bn.

Mr Moffat said on Tuesday morning his wife had noticed "a major discrepancy of two £50bn debits" being taken out of his account.

"We knew we still had quite a bit left in the account as we checked last night before we went out," he said.

"This morning I went out to get a few things, then, when I came back, my account was overdrawn by that amount."

Mr Moffat said he had "been passed from pillar to post" after making the error known to Barclays.

He also said he was looking for the bank to up its offer of compensation for the level of stress he had been put under in trying to resolve the situation.

In a statement Barclays said: "Earlier today a technical error caused some customer accounts to be incorrectly debited.

"The problem was immediately identified and corrected within less than an hour, and all affected customer accounts are now showing correct balances.

"No customers will be financially impacted by this error. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused our customers."
BBC NEWS REPORT.

FACES OF THE YEAR - THE MEN !

Some of the men who have made the headlines in 2008, clockwise from top left: Radovan Karadzic, John Sergeant, Josef Fritzl, Usain Bolt, John Coward, Rafa Nadal, Damian Green, Jay-Z, Max Mosely, Nathaniel Rothschild, David Axelrod and Henry Conway.

Click herefor the women of the year.

Radovan Karadzic John Sergeant Josef Fritzl Usain Bolt

John Coward Rafa Nadal Henry Conway David Axelrod

Nathaniel Rothschild Max Mosely Jay-Z Damian Green

RADOVAN KARADZIC
The former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, was finally apprehended after 12 years on the run. He faces 11 charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. They include genocide relating to his orchestrating the mass murder of tens of thousands of Bosnians, mainly Muslims, during the civil war in Bosnia, which ended 1995. Karadzic initially evaded capture by surrounding himself with sympathisers and flitting between farmsteads, monasteries and caves. He never used a mobile phone for fear of being detected by the US intelligence services. Later, he adopted the disguise of a new-age faith healer called Dragan Dabic, with long white flowing locks. He was arrested on a Belgrade bus.

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JOHN SERGEANT
John Sergeant is "normal" in that he is a bloke who can't dance. This ought to have been a huge disadvantage since he took part in the BBC's highly popular TV show, Strictly Come Dancing. Week after week, the judges poured scorn on his pedestrian, uncoordinated routines. Yet, week after week, the public voted for him to remain in the show at the expense of more talented contestants. Arguments broke out as to whether this was a dance show or simply an entertainment spectacle. Then, halfway through the series, Sergeant pulled out saying that "there was a real chance I could win and that would be a joke too far". His partner, Kristina Rihanoff claimed the judges had driven him out. One judge, Craig Revel Horwood, dismissed this and accused Sergeant of being "cowardly".

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JOSEF FRITZL
Retired electrical engineer Josef Fritzl was arrested for a crime that shocked the world. He confessed to holding his daughter Elisabeth captive in an underground bunker for 24 years in the provincial Austrian town of Amstetten. What's more, he repeatedly raped her and fathered seven children by her. The case only came to light when Mr Fritzl allowed one of his children to seek hospital treatment. Mr Fritzl was formally charged in November with murder, rape, slavery, incest, mental torture and false imprisonment. The murder charge relates to one of the incest children who died as a child. Mr Fritzl told police he destroyed the corpse by throwing it into his heating furnace. Three of his offspring were allowed to live with Mr Fritzl and his wife as "normal" children in their home upstairs, while the others stayed with their mother.

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USAIN BOLT
The 6ft 5in Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt left Beijing flying high after becoming the first man to win the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay at a single Olympics since Carl Lewis in 1984. He was also the first man in history to set world records in all three at a single Olympic Games. His 9.62 seconds 100m record would have been even better had he not begun celebrating before he crossed the finish line. Bolt then smashed Michael Johnson's 200m world record that had stood for 12 years, in a time of 19.3 seconds. Finally, he and his three Jamaican teammates took the Olympic gold in the relay in a time of 37.10 seconds. Not surprisingly, he earned the nickname Lightning Bolt.

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JOHN COWARD
Despite his name, John Coward is anything but cowardly. He was at the controls of a Boeing 777 when it was coming in to land at Heathrow airport on a British Airways flight from Beijing. Without warning, the plane stalled. He said later: "I thought this is going to be a catastrophic crash. This is it." However, Mr Coward managed to keep the plane's nose up, clear the fence and maintain the aircraft in a straight line until it shuddered to a halt. Investigators believe the engine failure was probably caused by ice restricting the flow of fuel. One airport worker said of Mr Coward: "The man deserves a medal as big as a frying pan."

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RAFA NADAL
Rafa Nadal's victory over Roger Federer at this year's Wimbledon men's final is regarded as a classic. The Spanish player had been threatening the Swiss's status as world number one for many months. But the manner in which it was achieved left every tennis fan breathless. The gruelling five-setter ended in near darkness prompting one leading sports columnist to declare it as "the greatest sporting event I've ever seen". Even John McEnroe agreed that it had eclipsed his epic 1980 final against Bjorn Borg. With his rippling biceps, his rocket forehands and his never-say-die attitude, Nadal had defeated arguably the most complete tennis player ever in Federer. Nadal went on to take the Olympic gold in Beijing, though knee problems hampered his progress in later tournaments.

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HENRY CONWAY
The son of the now-disgraced Tory MP Derek Conway first came to the public's attention when it was revealed he was receiving £32,000 a year of taxpayers' money for being his father's "research assistant". In fact, there was very little "research" being done. His father and younger brother Freddie, who was also on the payroll, kept a low profile after the scandal broke. However, the self-styled "Queen Sloane" embraced his notoriety and partied his worries away. He became known for his flamboyant dress sense and arrived at one nightclub in a horse-drawn carriage dressed as a Regency dandy. He was forced to give up his "job" in politics and is now reportedly planning to be an interior designer.

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DAVID AXELROD
Known as "the Ax", David Axelrod was the mastermind behind Barack Obama's victory over John McCain in the race to be the next US president. He had previously orchestrated Obama's meteoric rise from small-time community organiser to Illinois senator and his victory over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. A 53-year-old former journalist on the Chicago Tribune turned political consultant, the heavily moustachioed Mr Axelrod first met Obama during a voter-registration drive in Chicago in 1992. The two became close friends. By constantly honing the message of "change", studying voter analyses and by using the internet as a major campaigning tool, Mr Axelrod and his team helped persuade the American people to elect their first black president, something most African-Americans thought would never happen in their lifetimes.

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NATHANIEL ROTHSCHILD
It was "bad manners" that got Nathaniel Rothschild hot under the collar and in the headlines. The banking heir was furious when his old university friend, shadow chancellor George Osborne, leaked comments Peter Mandelson had made to him in private about Gordon Brown during the summer, aboard a yacht in Corfu. Mr Rothschild, who was also a guest on the yacht, was furious and thought Mr Osborne had broken an unwritten rule of friendship by snitching. In retaliation he wrote a letter to the Times revealing that on the same yacht Mr Osborne had discussed soliciting a donation to Conservative Party funds from their host, the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Accepting money from a non-UK citizen would have broken election rules. Mr Osborne eventually had to admit he had made a "mistake" by getting involved in discussions about a possible donation. He was probably struck off Mr Rothschild's Christmas card list too.

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MAX MOSELY
The president of FIA, the Formula 1 body, Max Mosley, also suffered a blow to his reputation but kept his job. The News of the World published on their website secretly filmed excerpts of a sadomasochism session Mr Mosley took part in. Some of the women involved wore striped uniforms and one scene was played out in German. But Mr Mosley successfully sued the newspaper for libel and invasion of privacy. He was awarded £60,000 in damages, after persuading the judge that his actions were consensual, had no Nazi theme, and were of no public interest. Mr Mosley is the son of former British Fascist leader, Oswald Mosley. The verdict inevitably raised the issue of press freedom.

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JAY-Z
A volley of criticism surrounded the decision to choose rapper Jay-Z to headline the 2008 Glastonbury Festival. American, Jay-Z, real name Shawn Carter, is widely regarded as the world's greatest hip-hop artist. "Jay-Z? No chance," complained Noel Gallagher of Oasis. To Gallagher Glastonbury was built on a tradition of guitar music. "I'm not having hip-hop at Glastonbury," he continued. "It's wrong." Jay-Z's inclusion was blamed for initial poor ticket sales, but eventually the festival was sold out. As the rapper took to the stage, giant video screens played images of Gallagher's criticism. Then Jay-Z began his performance with a tongue-in-cheek version of Oasis's hit, Wonderwall. His fans loved it.

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DAMIAN GREEN
Leaks are at the centre of a political row that continues to rumble on at Westminster. The Conservative Party's immigration spokesman, Damian Green, was arrested in November following leaks to him of classified information from the Home Office over a two-year period. The police are investigating whether or not Mr Green may have encouraged these leaks. The MP was later released on bail but not before anti-terror police officers were allowed to search his office at the House of Commons and seize his computer. Conservative politicians are incensed, believing it to be the right of any MP to highlight misdeeds and cover-ups in government and that the police action had been heavy-handed.

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Compiled by Bob Chaundy.
BBC NEWS MAGAZINE

ZIMBABWE CHARGES ON 'TOILET BOMB'

Five Zimbabwe opposition officials have been accused of bombing a kitchen in a police station and a toilet in the capital Harare, state media reports.

They were charged with terrorism, sabotage and malicious damage at Harare Magistrates' Court on Monday.

The five - who include an ex-police superintendent and journalist - were remanded, said the Chronicle newspaper.

They allegedly sneaked into Harare central police station on 2 August and used explosives to blow up a kitchen.

They were also reportedly accused of blowing up a men's toilet near the Harare headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department on 17 November.

Three days later they bombed Harare central police station again, says the prosecution. All the alleged attacks reportedly resulted in minor damage.

The prosecution also claims the accused detonated two bombs which blew up a 60cm stretch of rail track at Norton, near Harare, on 21 August.

The five are reportedly members of Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

They include Emmanuel Dhlamini, a former police superintendent, who the Chronicle says is MDC's head of security and intelligence and Gandi Mudzingwa, a personal adviser to Mr Tsvangirai.

The Chronicle reported that the court had allowed the five to be medically examined after they claimed they had been tortured in police custody.

Zimbabwe has been crippled by stalled power-sharing negotiations between the MDC and ruling Zanu-PF, as well as a cholera epidemic which has spread quickly amid the country's economic meltdown.

Mr Tsvangirai has threatened to pull out of talks on power-sharing unless the abduction of MDC officials stops.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ROBBERY SUSPECT LEFT HIS ADDRESS!

Chicago police have arrested a man who allegedly robbed a bank using a threatening note written on the back of his own pay cheque.

Police say 40-year-old Thomas Infante walked into the bank and gave a staff member a note saying, "Be Quick...Give your cash or I'll shoot".

He got $400 (£270), but left behind half of his note as he fled.

Detectives found the rest of the slip - complete with his name and home address - outside the bank's front doors.

Mr Infante was later arrested at his home in Cary, Illinois. If convicted of bank robbery, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

FRITZL'S DAUGHTER LEAVES CLINIC!

The trial of Josef Fritzl is expected to begin in March 2009

An Austrian woman allegedly held as a sex slave by her father for 24 years has left the clinic where she had been recovering since being freed in April.

Elisabeth Fritzl and the six children allegedly sired by her father had moved into their own house, her lawyer said.

Josef Fritzl faces trial in early 2009 on charges of kidnapping Elisabeth, now 42, when she was 18 and holding her captive in a bunker in his back garden.

He is also charged with slavery, rape and the murder of one child.

That child - his seventh with Elisabeth - was born in the underground chamber in Amstetten, west of Vienna, but died in infancy.

Mr Fritzl is alleged to have refused to call for medical help after the baby was born, despite knowing the child could die.

Mr Fritzl, 73, has been in custody since the case came to light in April, when Elisabeth's eldest daughter, Kerstin, was taken to hospital suffering from kidney failure.

Three of her surviving children grew up in the cellar, without ever seeing daylight, while the three others were brought up by Mr Fritzl's wife.

Austrian prosecutors say the charges against Mr Fritzl carry a prison sentence of 10 years to life.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

US OFFERS $6bn BAIL-OUT FOR GMAC

General Motors' troubled car loan arm, co-owned by Chrysler's owner, Cerberus.

The move - to encourage GMAC to offer funding to would-be vehicle buyers - is the latest aimed at easing the severity of the economic downturn.

Earlier this month the White House agreed a $17.4bn bail-out GM, Chrysler and Ford to help stave off collapse.

GMAC recently gained approval to become a bank holding company. This gave it access to emergency government funds offered to other financial institutions. Under the terms of the rescue, the US Treasury will buy $5bn in shares in GMAC, and will increase a loan to one of GMAC's co-owners, GM, by an extra $1bn.

This increased loan will help fund GM's purchase of shares as part of GMAC's reorganization as a bank holding company, and comes on top of the bail-out for the car industry.

The Treasury said it was dipping into the $700bn financial bail-out fund which was approved by Congress in early October to fund this rescue.

GMAC's solvency is considered crucial to GM's own survival.

The car loans firm has lost $7.9bn over the last five quarters as the credit crisis has raised its borrowing costs sharply and the value of many of its assets plunged.

GMAC has traditionally provided the bulk of financing for car buyers at GM dealerships and the loans that dealers rely on for their inventories of GM cars and trucks.

But its ability to provide both kinds of financing has been sharply limited over the past several months because of the broader credit crisis and as GMAC's ability to borrow has lessened.

GM's US sales plunged 41% in November and the carmaker said the squeeze on GMAC's own financing was on reason for the downward spiral in sales.

GM said earlier this month, that while GMAC had been able to provide financing to nearly half of GM car buyers just a year ago, that share had dropped to 6% now.

In a statement, GMAC said it intended "to act quickly to resume automotive lending to a broader spectrum of customers".

GMAC agreed to restrictions on dividend payments and executive pay as part of the equity injection.

The bonus pool available to its top 25 executives has been cut by 40% from 2007 levels.

GM and Cerberus will both see their holdings in GMAC reduced as a result of GMAC becoming a bank holding company.

GM will end up with 10% stake, while Cerberus will have a 30% share in GMAC.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

ISRAEL VOWS WAR ON HAMAS IN GAZA

Top Israeli officials have vowed to continue attacks on militant group Hamas, as Israeli air strikes pounded the Gaza Strip for a third day.

Israel was fighting a "war to the bitter end" against Hamas, its defence chief said. A top army official said no Hamas buildings would be left standing.

About 320 Palestinians have died since Saturday, the UN says. Four Israelis have been killed by rockets from Gaza.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for an immediate ceasefire.

Mr Ban said he was "deeply alarmed" by the escalation of violence in Gaza. While recognising Israel's right to defend itself from militant rocket attacks, he condemned its "excessive use of force".

Israel has massed forces along the boundary with Gaza and has declared the area around it a "closed military zone".

GAZA CAMPAIGN DEATHS 320 - Official Gaza toll (source: UN) 62 civilians in Gaza (source: UN) 4 civilians in Israel (source: Israel police) West Bank anger at Gaza strikes Israel looks for knockout blow In pictures: Third day of raids

Correspondents say the move - in addition to the call-up of thousands of reservists - could be a prelude to ground operations, but could also be intended to build pressure on Hamas.

In other developments:

• The Red Cross described the situation in Gaza's hospitals as chaotic, with medical teams "stretched to the limit"

• A small number of wounded Palestinians have begun passing through the Rafah crossing into Egypt for treatment; trucks laden with medical aid have been permitted to cross into Gaza

• European Union foreign ministers are to meet in Paris on Tuesday to discuss the escalating crisis

Dozens of centres of Hamas strength, including security compounds, government offices and tunnels into Egypt, have been hit since Israel started its massive bombing campaign on Saturday morning.

See detailed map of attacks

Early on Monday, raids damaged both the interior ministry and a science building at the Islamic University in Gaza, from which many top Hamas officials graduated.

Places hit by later strikes included the home of a senior Hamas commander and a car carrying gas cylinders, reports said. Five sisters were killed in one attack in the densely-populated Jabaliya area.

Israelis in nearby towns have faced an escalated militant rocket threat Grief and fear in Gaza Aid worker diary: Gaza raids Rocket attacks plague Israeli towns

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said his latest information was that about 320 Palestinians had been killed and 1,400 injured.

"Sixty-two of those killed, we believe... are civilian casualties," he told a news conference.

"That simply encompasses those who are women and children. It does not include any civilian casualties who are men - even though we know that there have been some civilian men killed as well."

Palestinian hospital sources put the death toll higher, with 345 people killed and 1,650 injured.

Israel reported its second fatality, a labourer at a building site in the city of Ashkelon that was hit by a medium-range Grad missile. Three people were seriously wounded in the attack.

Late on Monday, Israeli media reported two more deaths from rocket fire in the space of an hour, at Nahal Oz near the border with Gaza and in the southern city of Ashdod. Several people were injured in the attacks.

Israel says its aim is to end the rocket attacks by Hamas-linked militants - of which there were more than 40 on Monday, the Associated Press news agency said.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Israel was not fighting the residents of Gaza, but wanted to deal Hamas a "severe blow". The Israeli operation would be "widened and deepened as needed", he said.

The army's deputy chief, meanwhile, said that there would "not be a single Hamas building left standing in Gaza" after the operation.

Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon went further. "The goal of the operation is to topple Hamas," he said.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon called on both Israel and Hamas to "halt their acts of violence and take all necessary measures to avoid civilian casualties".

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for an immediate ceasefire

"The suffering caused to civilian populations as a result of the large-scale violence and destruction that have taken place over the past few days has saddened me profoundly," he said.

The US - Israel's strongest ally - says the onus is on Hamas to end the violence and commit itself to a truce.

But there have been angry protests against the Israeli action in many cities across the Arab world and in several European capitals. In Lebanon, tens of thousands of people took part in a demonstration in the capital, Beirut.

The strikes began less than a week after the expiry of a six-month-long ceasefire deal with Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007.

Analysts said Saturday was the single deadliest day in Gaza since Israel's occupation of the territory in 1967. Israel withdrew in 2005 but has kept tight control over access in and out of Gaza and its airspace.

The exiled leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, has called for a new intifada, or uprising, against Israel, while the movement's Gaza leader, Ismail Haniya, called the attack an "ugly massacre".

GAZA VIOLENCE 27-29 DECEMBER 1. Ashdod: First attack so far north, Sunday 2. Ashkelon: One man killed, several injured in rocket attack, Monday 3. Sderot: rocket attacks 4. Nevitot: One man killed, several injured in rocket attack, Saturday 5. Civilian family reported killed in attack on Yabna refugee camp, Sunday 6. Israeli warplanes strike tunnels under Gaza/Egypt border, Sunday 7. Three young brothers reported killed in attack on Rafah, Sunday 8. Khan Younis: Four members of Islamic Jihad and a child reported killed, Sunday 9. Deir al-Balah: Palestinians injured, houses and buildings destroyed, Sunday 10. Interior ministry and Islamic University badly damaged, Monday 11. Gaza City port: naval vessels targeted, Sunday 12. Shati refugee camp: Home of Hamas leader Ismail Hanniyeh targeted, Monday 13. Intelligence building attacked, Sunday 14. Jebaliya refugee camp: several people killed in attack on mosque, Sunday

BBC NEWS REPORT.

FACES OF THE YEAR - THE WOMEN !

Some of the women who have made the headlines in 2008, clockwise from top left: Duffy, Simone Wallmeyer, Fiona Shackleton, Shannon Matthews, Ingrid Betancourt, Fern Britton, Cheryl Cole, Christine Ohuruogu, Georgina Baillie, Sarah Palin, Carla Bruni and Yang Peiyi.

Duffy Simone Wallmeyer Fiona Shackleton Shannon Matthews

Ingrid Betancourt Fern Britton Yang Peiyi Carla Bruni

Sarah Palin Georgina Baillie Christine Ohuruogu Cheryl Cole

SIMONE WALLMEYER
If the credit crunch, which started in 2007, grew to become the story of the year, one face represents the turmoil of the financial meltdown better than any other - Simone Wallmeyer. The Frankfurt Stock Exchange broker's emotion-wracked face became a fixture on the front pages of many newspapers around the world. Behind her designer spectacles, Ms Wallmeyer's animated features seemed to reflect every bad twist and turn in the world economy. The 47-year-old broker with Germany's ICF securities bank thinks her fame may be partly to do with the fact that she sits in front of the share price index board. But she admits the adrenaline high caused by the markets crashing has caused her to "run the full gamut of emotions".

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DUFFY
Presenting a far more beatific face to the world was the British singer Duffy. The 24-year-old diminutive blonde chanteuse from Bangor in north Wales headed a charge of female British soul talent with a retro feel. Duffy's album Rockferry was the biggest selling album of the year, outperforming Coldplay and Take That. It included her hit, Mercy, which was voted Song of the Year at the MOJO awards. Duffy, real name Aimee Duffy but never referred to as such except by friends, has also received three Grammy nominations. She has been compared to Dusty Springfield in both looks and voice and, like Dusty, has found fame in America. She has made 15 trips to New York and has sung at the legendary Harlem Apollo.

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FIONA SHACKLETON
Emotions were in plentiful supply in court 34 of the Royal Courts of Justice earlier this year when Heather Mills poured a jug of water over the head of Fiona Shackleton. Ms Shackleton was the lawyer representing her husband Sir Paul McCartney in their divorce proceedings. But the 51-year-old legal eagle had the last laugh, convincing the judge that her client, the former Beatle, was worth only half of the £800m that Ms Mills alleged. Ms Mills asked for £125m, but was granted only £24.3m. It was another triumph for the woman whose charm, resoluteness and blonde looks have earned her the nickname Steel Magnolia. It was because of Ms Shackleton's high-profile success when acting for the Prince of Wales in his divorce case against Diana that McCartney is said to have chosen her.

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SHANNON MATTHEWS
If Heather Mills has become something of a hate figure in the British media, it is nothing compared with the mother of nine-year-old Shannon Matthews. Karen Matthews reported her daughter missing in February, made an emotional appeal to her "kidnappers" and had many of her neighbours in Dewsbury go looking for the child. In fact, Shannon had been abducted by Mrs Matthew's boyfriend's uncle, Michael Donovan, described in court as "inadequate", in connivance with Miss Matthews. Shannon was drugged, tethered and kept in the drawer of a divan bed. The debt-ridden mother had hoped to profit from a reward. The pair were convicted of abduction charges. The case, however, raised the lid on the extent of poverty, welfare dependency and child neglect in many of Britain's sink council housing estates.

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INGRID BETANCOURT
There was nothing fake about the kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt. In 2002, nine months after announcing that she would run for President of Colombia, she was captured by the guerrilla group Farc and held for six years in the jungle. She and 14 others were rescued this year in a daring mission launched by her former rival, President Alvaro Uribe. During her captivity, she says she was "abused, insulted and tortured". She spoke to the BBC's Alan Johnston, himself a kidnap victim, about her struggle to maintain her self-respect, and said of her ordeal, "I've decided that there are things that will never be brought to the surface - that have to stay in the jungle."

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FERN BRITTON
TV presenter Fern Britton earned a good deal of praise in the tabloid press for losing some five stones in weight on a diet. Initially she said, "It's taken me two years and a lot of hard work." However, praise turned to criticism when it emerged she had had a gastric band fitted around her stomach, reducing the amount of food it could take. Viewers felt they had been misled and, in the resultant furore, Ms Britton missed four editions of her programme This Morning with "nervous exhaustion". She said that she had fudged the issue in case it encouraged people to undergo the procedure inappropriately.

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YANG PEIYI
A deception on a much grander scale was performed by the Chinese authorities at the summer Olympics in front of a worldwide audience of hundreds of millions. As part of the opening ceremony in the Bird's Nest stadium, a cute little nine-year-old Chinese girl named Lin Miaoke sang the Ode to the Motherland. Except she didn't. In fact, it was to have been performed by another child, seven-year-old Yang Peiyi. But at the 11th hour, little Yang was replaced because she wasn't photogenic enough. Instead, Lin Miaoke lip-synched Yang Peiyi's voice. An official declared, "The child on the camera should be flawless in image, internal feelings and expression."

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CARLA BRUNI
There's nothing unphotogenic about Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, France's first lady as of February this year when she tied the knot with French president Nicolas Sarkozy. A month later the former supermodel went on to wow the British public accompanying her husband on a state visit to Britain. The media positively frothed at the mouth in describing her elegant beauty. Her charm offensive was not restricted to matters of state. In September, she appeared on the BBC's Later… with Jools Holland programme singing songs from her recent album, Comme Si de Rien N'Etait. Later, she told French TV that her wedding to President Sarkozy was decided just two days in advance, and that she had practised curtsying to The Queen with singer Marianne Faithfull.

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SARAH PALIN
Another woman who caused a stir in world politics in 2008 was Sarah Palin. John McCain catapulted her from the obscurity of Alaska on to the world stage when he chose her as his presidential running mate. When she joked, "What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick", it seemed a large section of America instantly fell in love with her. A number of gaffes including, allegedly, the belief that Africa was one country, the comedy impersonation by Tina Fey, and a family scandal involving her brother-in-law eventually saw Mrs Palin become more of a campaign liability than a benefit. Yet, many on the right of the Republican Party are backing her to become their presidential candidate in 2012.

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GEORGINA BAILLIE
Another figure that rose from obscurity in an unlikely fashion was Georgina Baillie. A member of a "horror burlesque" troupe named the Satanic Sluts, she found herself at the centre of a media scandal that resulted in comedian Russell Brand and Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas resigning from the BBC, while presenter Jonathan Ross was suspended. On radio, Brand and Ross had rung up Baillie's grandfather, Andrew Sachs, the actor best known for his role as Manuel in Fawlty Towers. In a message they left on his answer phone, Brand boasted of having slept with Sachs's granddaughter. Later, Miss Baillie told how her loving middle-class upbringing had given way to drugs and appearances in pornographic movies once her parents had split up. When asked what she had learned from this scandal, her reply was "Don't sleep with celebrities. Ever."

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CHRISTINE OHURUOGU
Christine Ohuruogu admitted she was so nervous before the Olympic 400m final that she barely slept. When the starting gun sounded, her main rival, American Sanya Richards, went off at a furious pace. But Ohuruogu timed her tactics to perfection, winning Britain's first 400m Olympic gold since Eric Liddell - of Chariots of Fire fame - won in 1924. It was a remarkable comeback for Ohuruogu who had been suspended for a year after three missed drugs tests. She then successfully challenged a ruling that barred her from competing at the Olympics. After the race she said, "The last 50 metres is when people start dying and everyone knows I don't die in the last 50 metres."

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CHERYL COLE
Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Cole received much public sympathy after tabloid speculation about the fidelity of her husband, footballer Ashley Cole. But her popularity has soared this year since she became a judge and mentor on the popular reality TV show, The X Factor. Her good looks combined with her warmth and sensitivity appeals to both sexes. She cries when empathising with contestants' sob stories, but is forthright and feisty when criticising performances. Cole herself auditioned for a reality TV programme as a nervous 19-year-old. According to PR guru Max Clifford, "She knows her subject because, professionally, she does exactly what she's judging…she's got a natural humility."

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Compiled by Bob Chaundy.

BBC NEWS MAGAZINE

DUBAI SEX MAN FACES MASSIVE BILL !

A British man who was convicted of having sex on a beach in Dubai has been left with a legal bill of tens of thousands of pounds.

Vince Acors, 34, of Bromley, south-east London, and Michelle Palmer, 36, of Oakham, Rutland, both got three-month jail terms, later suspended on appeal.

Acors told BBC Radio 5 Live it had been a "very expensive experience".

He also expressed his relief at seeing his family and friends after arriving back in the UK on Christmas Eve.

Acors said he went to Dubai on a three-day business trip which turned out to be a six-month ordeal which was "gladly finally over".

He went on to explain how the costs mounted up after he was arrested.

"You pay a succession of fees to a local, which is your lawyer, then you have a set of fees for your solicitor who effectively puts your case together," he said.

"We paid double-bubble, but we got the result that we wanted in the end."

He added: "It's been an extremely expensive situation for me. I had a pretty successful business before I went to Dubai which it's going to take me at least six months to pick back up again.

"In addition to that, the living expenses in Dubai are huge. I didn't think there could possibly be a place more expensive than London, but I found it."

He said he could not see himself and Palmer pursuing a relationship.

Acors later told a news conference that heavy drinking and contact between unmarried couples were not uncommon in Dubai, but added he had been "extremely naive".

"We just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said. He added that he felt the Dubai authorities had "no real choice" other than to find the pair guilty because of the worldwide publicity surrounding the situation.

"We were obviously on the beach, and the definition of sex in this country is different to the definition in the Middle East," he said. "There would have been some physical contact, but intercourse did not take place."

Palmer flew home before Acors who was re-arrested because of paperwork problems as he prepared to board a flight back to the UK.

She was working in Dubai as a publishing executive but was sacked after her arrest.

The pair were arrested on Jumeirah Beach on 5 July, hours after meeting at a champagne brunch.

In October, they were found guilty by Dubai's Court of First Instance of unmarried sex and public indecency. They admitted a charge of being drunk in a public place.

Acors and Palmer were also fined £170 each.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

"Sayings"

"DO NOT WAIT FOR LEADERS,

DO IT ALONE,

PERSON TO PERSON" !
_________

HOLOCAUST 'LOVE STORY' WAS FAKE !

Herman Rosenblat claimed Roma threw food to him over a camp fence

A US publisher has cancelled publication of a Holocaust memoir after its author revealed that he had made up crucial parts of it.

Herman Rosenblat did survive a German concentration camp, but he did not fall in love with a girl who threw him food over the fence, as stated in the book.

Instead, he met her on a blind date in New York and married her 50 years ago.

His book, Angel at the Fence, came under public scrutiny after a number of scholars questioned important details.

The fabricated story says that when Rosenblat moved to New York after the war he met Roma Radzicki by chance and discovered she was the girl who had thrown apples and bread to him.

They fell in love and married.

But some questioned Rosenblat's descriptions of Schlieben - a sub-camp of Buchenwald - and said it was impossible to throw food over the fence there.

The book was due to be published by Berkley Books, part of the Penguin Group, in February. Advance publicity had included a couple of appearances by Rosenblat on the chat show hosted by Oprah Winfrey.

In a statement, Rosenblat, 79, said: "I wanted to bring happiness to people. "I brought hope to a lot of people. My motivation was to make good in this world." His agent Andrea Hurst told the Associated Press: "I question why I never questioned it. I believed it; it was an incredible, hope-filled story."

A statement from Berkley said Rosenblat and his agent will be required to return "all money that they have received for this work," Reuters news agency reported.

Historical records prove that Rosenblat was an inmate at Buchenwald and other camps.

But Rosenblat's agent said the love story involving meeting his future wife through the fence when he was a teenage prisoner at Schlieben was invented.

The Angel at the Fence is the latest in a series of high-profile literary fabrications.

Earlier this year, a Belgian woman revealed she had invented her tale of survival as a Jewish girl searching for her parents with a pack of wolves in Nazi-occupied Europe.

Monique De Wael, who adopted the pseudonym Misha Defonseca, admitted she was not Jewish and had lived in Belgium.

And a memoir by a white woman that claimed she was raised in poverty by a black foster mother and sold drugs for a Los Angeles gang was also exposed as a lie after her sister contacted the publisher.

Margaret B Jones, the author of Love and Consequences, actually grew up in a well-off area of California's San Fernando Valley.

Meanwhile James Frey, another author championed by Oprah Winfrey, admitted he "embellished" his bestselling memoir about his battle with drug addiction published in 2003.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

EU CLIMATE DEAL STRUCK AT A PRICE!

By Laurance Peter -BBC News Brussels.

Securing a deal on the wide-ranging EU climate change package was a key goal of the French EU presidency, which will hand over to the Czechs in January.

European nations reliant on polluting industries will be compensated

The deal agreed at the EU summit in Brussels on Friday keeps the European Commission's overall 20/20/20 targets on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, developing renewable energy and boosting energy efficiency.

But the deal comes at a price. Many EU countries have exerted pressure to soften their national energy targets, arguing that the cost of modernising heavy industry - and thereby cutting emissions - risks making them less competitive, at a time of economic crisis.

So there will be compensation for the EU's poorer member states - notably the former communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe, which have a legacy of heavily polluting old industrial plants.

Chief among them is Poland, whose energy sector is 95% dependent on coal, one of the dirtiest fossil fuels.

The French presidency says the deal should enable the climate package to be finalised with the European Parliament by the end of this year.

The parliament has co-decision powers on this, so it can still make amendments - and the plan to make it EU law early next year still looks ambitious. The EU is keen to prove itself a world leader on this issue before the global climate talks in Copenhagen in a year's time.

The main target is to cut CO2 emissions by at least 20% by 2020, compared with 1990 levels. That will rise to 30% if a global deal on emissions cuts is reached for the period after 2012.

The summit saw tough negotiations over the mechanism for reaching that target, along with the goals of 20% use of renewables and a 20% improvement in energy efficiency.

Claude Turmes, a Green MEP and one of the European Parliament's chief climate negotiators, strongly criticised the revised package, saying it meant only one-fifth of the world's emission cuts would be made in Europe.

He said only the targets on renewables remained untouched. EU leaders had decided to postpone the structural changes to industry needed to combat global warming, he said. "We must stop the dirty polluting lobbies dominating European politics. This is giving too much to the big polluters," he told the BBC.

Changes will be made to the EU's existing Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), launched in 2005. The deal softens the blow for big electricity generators in Eastern Europe.

The original plan was for them to start buying all their pollution allowances from 2013. Currently many of these CO2 allowances are allocated for free, with varying national allocations in the 27-nation EU.

Under the revised package, exceptions will be made for plants which were only partly or not at all linked up to the main EU power network in 2007 and for plants in poorer EU states still heavily dependent on fossil fuel.

They will buy 30% of their CO2 allowances in 2013, and the 100% figure for buying allowances at auction will not be reached until 2020.

Exceptions - called "derogations" - will also apply to industrial sectors identified as being at risk of "carbon leakage". That is, industries which EU data suggest could relocate jobs or plant to non-EU countries which pollute more.

The Commission now faces a huge job in identifying those "carbon leakage" risks - and there will be pressure from industry lobbies who hope to get derogations.

There was intense bargaining at the summit over revenues from the ETS, which will generate many billions of euros as the scheme expands to take in more sectors of the economy.

Future projections are difficult, however, because the recession will force more plants in Europe to close, and that could substantially reduce the need for CO2 allowances.

The leaders decided that 12% of ETS revenues would go into a "solidarity" fund to help the poorer member states modernise their heavy industry.

But environmentalists say ETS revenues ought to be invested in renewable energy and green technological innovation, such as carbon storage.

Lithuania may also get extra CO2 allowances after its nuclear power station at Ignalina shuts down next year.

The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 set up a clean development mechanism (CDM) - also called "carbon offsets" - which is meant to boost green projects in developing countries.

It means industrialised countries can "offset" some of their emissions by investing in such projects. The EU package sets the "offset" limit for each EU country at 3% of verified 2005 emissions.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

TURKEY 'HIT PKK TARGETS IN IRAQ' !

Turkish fighter planes have bombed suspected Kurdish separatist positions in northern Iraq.

Turkish military sources said the attacks, which started late on Saturday, targeted members of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

There was no word on casualties. There has been no official comment from the Turkish armed forces on the raid.

Turkey has stepped up its cross-border operations into Iraq in recent months, amid mounting casualties on both sides.

Turkey has accused Iraq of failing to stop the PKK - who are fighting for greater autonomy in south-eastern Turkey - from using its northern areas as a safe haven

PKK targets in the Hakurke region of northern Iraq were hit late on Saturday, and several targets near the Iraqi-Turkish border were bombed on Sunday, the Turkish sources said.

Soldiers were also carrying out a ground offensive against rebels seen inside Turkey close to the Iraqi border, the sources said.

No Iraqis were hurt in the attacks, an Iraqi military official in the Kurdish border region told Reuters news agency.

"This is becoming routine - Turkish warplanes targeting the border area. We are not worried about civilian casualties because these areas are deserted," Lt-Col Ihsan Kamal said. He said he had no information on PKK casualties.

The PKK - which is treated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the EU and US - has waged a violent campaign for Kurdish autonomy since 1984, resulting in more than 40,000 deaths.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

COST CONCERNS RILE FORMULA ONE

By Theo Legget - Business Reporter BBC World Service

It has been a vintage year for Formula One Motor racing.

Honda's decision to close its F1 team created shockwaves

After a season of high drama, Lewis Hamilton swept through to win the drivers championship on the very last corner of the final lap of the final race.

But since then, F1 has been attracting the headlines for all the wrong reasons - as the economic downturn has started to take a heavy toll on the sport.

In early December the Japanese firm Honda announced that it was closing the doors on its high-spending but underperforming team.

The company was one of six carmakers that made up more than half of the F1 teams during the year.

F1 Total financial resources 2008 Toyota: $445.6m Mclaren: $433.3m Ferrari: $414.9m Honda: $398.1m Renault: $393.8m BMW: $366.8m Red Bull: $164.7m Williams: $160.6m Torro Rosso: $128.2m Force India: $121.85m Source : Formulamoney.com

Honda's withdrawal was prompted by a sudden and unexpected fall in sales.

Now there are fears that other manufacturers could follow the Japanese carmaker out of the sport - leaving F1 with half-empty grids to show its millions of television viewers.

The problem is that Formula One is simply too expensive.

In this hi-tech world, a single nut or bolt can cost up to $1,000 (£664) - and top teams can burn through more than $400m a year.

Manufacturers such as Honda, Renault and BMW were happy to plough cash into the sport, in exchange for valuable television exposure.

Mr Ecclestone raises $1bn a year from race fees, TV rights and advertising

But now things have changed.

In November, Honda saw its sales in the United States and Europe fall by almost a third compared with the same period a year ago.

Other companies are also struggling to sell cars. Their profits are suffering, and that means Formula One is starting to look like a luxury they can hardly afford.

A handful of teams in F1 do compete without the backing of a major car manufacturer, yet they too are far from immune to the effects of the downturn.

They rely on support from wealthy shareholders and on income from sponsorship, but in the current economic climate, good quality sponsors can be hard to find.

"It is difficult. Times are hard," says Ian Philips, commercial manager of Force India, a relatively small team owned by the Kingfisher beer billionaire, Vijay Mallya. "You just have to work harder, to prove that you can give a return on investment."

Yet while F1's teams are struggling to make ends meet, the sport itself has seemingly never been richer.

Formula One is past its peak in terms of spending

About $1bn is raised every year from advertising, race fees and television rights - a commercial empire created by the sport's figurehead, Bernie Ecclestone.

But the teams only get half of the cash.

Much of the rest is used to repay debt and interest on loans taken out by the company that ultimately controls F1, private equity group CVC Capital Partners.

"CVC have $2.3bn in debt that they took out to buy the commercial rights to F1," says Christian Sylt, author of Formula Money, a detailed guide to F1's finances.

"They're making annual repayments of about $240m. To sustain that, F1's revenues need to keep going up.

"But the teams also want more money - and the easiest way to get it is to ask the rights holder for a bigger share of the income the sport generates."

This is a big problem for CVC.

If they don't get a bigger share of Formula One's marketing riches, more teams could follow Honda out of the door, potentially undermining the glamour and prestige that have made F1 so wealthy in the first place.

But CVC cannot afford to give too much away, or it could find itself struggling to repay its debt, something which would have serious implications for the sport as a whole.

According to Mr Sylt, a large chunk of that debt was provided by the part-nationalised British bank, RBS - secured on the commercial rights to F1.

Hence, in the unlikely event that CVC was to default on its loans, the British taxpayer could effectively and inadvertently end up with a stake in the sport.

CVC declines to comment.

Meanwhile, the company is scrambling to increase its revenues. In recent years, it has abandoned many of F1's European heartlands, in favour of new events in regions such as Singapore, Shanghai and Bahrain.

The reason is simple: governments in the Middle East and Asia are willing to pay tens of millions of dollars for the right to host a grand prix. European governments, by and large, are not. At the same time, F1 teams are under intense pressure to cut costs.

"An F1 team should be able to get by on $60-70m a year," says Max Mosley, president of motor racing's governing body, the FIA.

At a meeting in December, F1's teams did agree to a raft of measures designed to cut their budgets by up to a third. But in the current frosty economic climate, even that may not be enough.

What is clear is that Formula One is in recession, and racing headlong into a rather uncertain future.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

'RIDICULOUS' 999 CALLS REVEALED !

One man called 999 to complain about a pizza order A priest dialled 999 when staff at Manchester Airport's WHSmith would not allow him to use the toilet, police have revealed. It was one of many "frivolous" calls made to Greater Manchester Police (GMP), which dealt with 5,000 emergency reports over Christmas. The force has urged the public not to dial 999 for "ridiculous" reasons. One woman complained she was unable to get through to Strictly Come Dancing to vote for Tom Chambers in the final. While a hoax caller reported Santa was breaking into a house with Rudolf. People calling 999 for non-emergencies and silly pranks can have a major impact on members of the public who need the police Supt Karen Lee, Greater Manchester Police Police also received a 999 call from a man who complained staff at a takeaway had wrongly put mushrooms on his pizza. Another caller dialled the number to ask for chemist opening times. Supt Karen Lee said: "I don't want a person to call 999 and be delayed because someone else is calling to report something that is not an emergency or, worse still, that is completely ridiculous and a deliberate joke. "People dialling 999 for non-emergency calls can put lives at risk because it could delay someone who really needs urgent help getting through." During the festive period officers have so far dealt with 72 hoax calls. With New Year's Eve the force's "busiest night", police have warned they do not want to have their time wasted. Supt Lee added: "People calling 999 for non-emergencies and silly pranks can have a major impact on members of the public who need the police." Last New Year GMP dealt with more than 3,000 emergency calls in six hours after midnight, and thousands more were taken on the force's non-emergency numbers. BBC NEWS REPORT.

OPTING OUT OF CHINA'S RAT RACE!

By Chris Hogg - BBC News, Shanghai.

Gao Hong and Yang Xiaoling fell in love with an old country house

China is celebrating 30 years of economic reform.

It was in December 1978 that former leader Deng Xiaoping declared the country would not just tolerate private enterprise but encourage it.

Since then, of course, much of the country has been transformed. Millions of people have moved from the countryside to the cities in search of a better life.

And after three decades of extraordinary economic growth, there are growing numbers of middle class Chinese with good jobs who are well-off relative to the rest of the population.

Now some of those who moved to cities like Shanghai for good wages in white collar jobs are starting to tire of the rat race, and in a reversal of past patterns of movement are abandoning the urban sprawl for a quieter life in the country.

Gao Hong and Yang Xiaoling, two advertising executives in their mid-thirties, decided a year ago to give up their lucrative careers to move to a quiet house in the country, eight hours drive from Shanghai in Jiangsi province.

They took a 40-year lease on an old house which Yang Xiaoling came across during a business trip.

Gao Hong says country life offers a better sense of community

"She found it when she was looking for a handmade umbrella," her husband Gao Hong explained, sitting in the sunshine in their garden on a bright but cold December morning.

Yang Xiaoling says there were several reasons why they decided to move.

She did not like their life in the city. "You work in a company like you are in a machine," she said.

"Your working life runs in a groove, you do what you're told."

"People in the city are indifferent to each other," her husband added. "Here our neighbours come and join us for meals often, they sit in the sun with us in the garden and chat all the time. We never lock our door."

"We lived in Shanghai for years but we had no contact with 90% of our neighbours. If you have no contact with your neighbour, you have no idea what kind of person they are."

The couple have blogged extensively about their new life and their reasons for choosing it.

In the tiny unheated room with wooden floors where they log on, they power up their laptop to display the large number of responses they have had from other netizens.

The couple want to help villagers sell goods to the cities

"Many say that deep in their hearts they have the same ambition that we had," Yang Xiaoling explained.

But some are not so sure. One woman who called herself "Shanghai girl" chastised the couple for opting out.

"She said: 'You are 35, you should be the backbone of society, but you are choosing to abandon yourself to a life of pleasure'," Yang Xiaoling said. "She told us: 'You are misleading people, you are hampering social development'."

The couple said that after this post other netizens added comments defending them, declaring that everyone had a right to choose their own lifestyle.

"I don't pose any threat to society, and I enjoy the pleasure of farming; I think that's beautiful," said Yang Xiaoling. The couple admit that it has not all been as easy and straightforward as they would have liked.

Their neighbours had to help them establish their vegetable garden because they did not really know what they were doing. They have grown enough to eat, but nowhere near enough to sell to others.

Despite a lack of village facilities, the couple have no regrets

There are rats to deal with and the roof leaks. But they say that compared with the difficulties they faced trying to get used to urban life, these problems are not that significant.

No-one is suggesting that the couple's decision to leave the city is the start of a major trend in Chinese society.

It is clear they had made enough money to stop work and try something quite different. Relatively few Chinese would be that well off.

Gao Hong is writing a book about their experience. They say once they have finished renovating the house they may open it as a guesthouse.

They also plan to help local people sell provisions and other goods in the cities. They will live off their savings until these business ventures start to provide a return.

They say they see themselves as pioneers.

"We have lived here for more than a year, and never for a moment have we thought, this is too bad, we have got to get back to Shanghai," Gao Hong laughed.

Leaving the front door wide open, the couple go for a stroll around the village. Facilities are very basic. Some of their neighbours are washing their clothes in the stream by hand. It is like going back 50 or 60 years.

But the couple are happy. "The dogs don't bark at us now," they said. "They always bark at strangers, so we know we belong."
BBC NEWS REPORT.

STALIN'S NEW STATUS IN RUSSIA!

By Richard Galpin -BBC News Moscow.

The poll was conducted online and by phone and text message

The former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin may have killed millions of his own people but this weekend he could be chosen by Russians as their greatest-ever countryman.

Inspired by the British competition 100 Greatest Britons, one of Russia's biggest television stations Rossiya has been conducting a nationwide poll for much of this year.

From an original list of 500 candidates now there are just 12 names left from which viewers can select their all-time hero.

The winner will be announced on Sunday.

More than 3.5 million people have already voted and Stalin - born an ethnic Georgian - has been riding high for many months.

In the summer he held the number one slot but was knocked down several places after the producer of the show appealed to viewers to vote for someone else.

Amongst the others on the list are Ivan the Terrible, Lenin, Catherine the Great and Alexander Pushkin.

The fact that Stalin has been doing so well comes as no surprise to members of the Communist Party, which remains one of the biggest political parties in the country.

TOP FIVE CHOICES IN POLL Pyotr Stolypin, pre-Revolutionary statesman - 426,300 Alexander Nevsky, medieval warrior prince - 418,200 Alexander Pushkin, poet - 397,100 votes Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator - 397,000 Vladimir Lenin, Revolutionary leader - 342,400 data correct as of 1400 GMT 27 December

"Stalin made Russia a superpower and was one of the founders of the coalition against Hitler in World War II," says Sergei Malinkovich, leader of the St Petersburg Communist Party.

"In all opinion polls he comes out on top as the most popular figure. Nobody else comes close. So for his service to this country we can forgive his mistakes."

Not only is Mr Malinkovich prepared to forgive Stalin's "mistakes", he also wants the man who is regarded as one of the most bloodthirsty tyrants of the 20th Century to be made a saint.

As I was interviewing him, he held a small neatly framed icon of Stalin's face.

Last month an Orthodox priest also displayed an icon of Stalin in his church near St Petersburg.

Although he was eventually forced to remove it, he vowed he would not be silenced and went on to describe Stalin as his "father". Many in Russia do still revere Stalin for his role during World War II when the Soviet Union defeated the forces of Nazi Germany.

But now there is a much broader campaign to rehabilitate Stalin and it seems to be coming from the highest levels of government. The primary evidence comes in the form of a new manual for history teachers in the country's schools, which says Stalin acted "entirely rationally".

Stalin's profile on the poll's website does not shy away from his crimes

"[The initiative] came from the very top," says the editor of the manual, historian Alexander Danilov.

"I believe it was the idea of former president, now prime minister, Vladimir Putin.

"It fits completely with the political course we have had for the last eight years, which is dedicated to the unity of society."

But the campaign goes further than reinterpreting history for schoolchildren. It is also physical.

Earlier this month, riot police raided the St Petersburg office of one of Russia's best-known human rights organisations, Memorial.

Claiming a possible link with an "extremist" article published in a local newspaper, the police took away 12 computer hard-drives containing the entire digital archive of the atrocities committed under Stalin.

Memorial's St Petersburg office specialises in researching the crimes committed by the Soviet regime.

"It's a huge blow to our organisation," says Irina Flige, the office director. "This was 20 years' work. We'd been making a universally accessible database with hundreds of thousands of names. "Maybe this was a warning to scare us?"

Irina Flige believes they were targeted because they are now on the wrong side of a new ideological divide. The new ideology is "Putinism" which, she says, has evolved over the past two years and is based on a strident form of nationalism.

What we have now [in Russia] effectively is the KGB in power Orlando Figes British historian

It seems Russians are to be proud of their history, not ashamed, and so those investigating and cataloguing the atrocities of the past are no longer welcome.

"The official line now is that Stalin and the Soviet regime were successful in creating a great country," says Irina Flige.

"And if the terror of Stalin is justified, then the government today can do what it wants to achieve its aims."

The outrage at what has happened to the Memorial archive spreads beyond Russia's borders.

The British historian Orlando Figes worked with Memorial when he was researching his latest book The Whisperers: Private Lives in Stalin's Russia.

"By conservative estimates 25 million people were repressed in the Soviet Union [under Stalin] between 1928 and 1953," he says. "That means people executed, arrested and sent to prison camps or turned into slave labourers or deported. "Virtually every family was affected by repression." "What we have now [in Russia] effectively is the KGB in power," he adds. "Opposition forces and awkward historians reminding the Russian population of what the KGB did 50 years ago is inconvenient for these people."

So it seems whoever is voted the country's greatest citizen on Sunday, it is Joseph Stalin who is the biggest winner this year as he is rehabilitated in Russia's brave new world.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

HUMAN SPECIES 'MAY SPLIT IN TWO'!

Humanity may split into an elite and an underclass, says Dr Curry

Humanity may split into two sub-species in 100,000 years' time as predicted by HG Wells, an expert has said.

Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge.

The human race would peak in the year 3000, he said - before a decline due to dependence on technology.

People would become choosier about their sexual partners, causing humanity to divide into sub-species, he added.

The descendants of the genetic upper class would be tall, slim, healthy, attractive, intelligent, and creative and a far cry from the "underclass" humans who would have evolved into dim-witted, ugly, squat goblin-like creatures.

But in the nearer future, humans will evolve in 1,000 years into giants between 6ft and 7ft tall, he predicts, while life-spans will have extended to 120 years, Dr Curry claims.

Physical appearance, driven by indicators of health, youth and fertility, will improve, he says, while men will exhibit symmetrical facial features, look athletic, and have squarer jaws, deeper voices and bigger penises.

Women, on the other hand, will develop lighter, smooth, hairless skin, large clear eyes, pert breasts, glossy hair, and even features, he adds. Racial differences will be ironed out by interbreeding, producing a uniform race of coffee-coloured people.

However, Dr Curry warns, in 10,000 years time humans may have paid a genetic price for relying on technology.

Spoiled by gadgets designed to meet their every need, they could come to resemble domesticated animals.

Social skills, such as communicating and interacting with others, could be lost, along with emotions such as love, sympathy, trust and respect. People would become less able to care for others, or perform in teams.

Physically, they would start to appear more juvenile. Chins would recede, as a result of having to chew less on processed food.

There could also be health problems caused by reliance on medicine, resulting in weak immune systems. Preventing deaths would also help to preserve the genetic defects that cause cancer.

Further into the future, sexual selection - being choosy about one's partner - was likely to create more and more genetic inequality, said Dr Curry.

The logical outcome would be two sub-species, "gracile" and "robust" humans similar to the Eloi and Morlocks foretold by HG Wells in his 1895 novel The Time Machine.

"While science and technology have the potential to create an ideal habitat for humanity over the next millennium, there is a possibility of a monumental genetic hangover over the subsequent millennia due to an over-reliance on technology reducing our natural capacity to resist disease, or our evolved ability to get along with each other, said Dr Curry.

He carried out the report for men's satellite TV channel Bravo.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

THE ENTERTAINMENT YEAR IN QUOTES!

Some of the most memorable quotes from the world of entertainment uttered during 2008.

Daniel Day Lewis (l) grabs George Clooney at the Oscars

Well, apart from anything else he was the nearest fellow nominee. He's just a great guy. I had to kiss someone. I kissed my wife, and in the interest of parity, I kissed George. Daniel Day Lewis explains why he grabbed George Clooney when it was announced he had won an Oscar.

I am devastated that my joyous time with one of the best programmes on TV has ended this way. I was happy to continue doing the numbers and letters for years to come. Carol Vorderman reacts to being ousted from Channel 4's Countdown over plans to give her a 90% pay cut.

We are the greatest band in the world, well, not quite the biggest band. U2 are on holiday. Radiohead are on holiday. Coldplay's ever-modest Chris Martin takes to the stage at the Q Awards. Embarrassed, he later returned to the stage and said:
I don't think we're the best act in the room, let alone the world.

Noel Gallagher felt like he had been in the ring with friend Ricky Hatton after he was attacked

Feels like I've had a sparring session with Ricky Hatton. Noel Gallagher after he was attacked by a fan on stage in Toronto.

Now don't make me cry. I love this part, and I love this show so much that if I don't take a deep breath and move on now I never will, and you'll be wheeling me out of the Tardis in my bath chair. David Tennant announces he is quitting Doctor Who.

I never do what anyone else is doing. I could walk away from music and become a farmer or do some crochet. The worst thing in life for me is to do something I'm not happy doing. Singer Grace Jones on keeping ahead of the pack.

Our time is up... we've come to the end of the road... there are tears of sadness and joy. The Spice Girls announce they are officially over... again, after cutting short their comeback tour.

But if the joke wears thin, if in fact people begin to take it very seriously, and if people really are getting so wound up that it's very difficult to carry off the joke, then I think it is time to go. John Sergeant decides to call it a day and leaves Strictly Come Dancing early despite huge support from the voting public.

John Sergeant's resignation from Strictly Come Dancing caused waves

"I've been through a lot the past two or three years, and I've definitely grown up, big time... I sit there and I look back and I'm like, 'I'm a smart person, like, what the hell was I thinking?" Britney Spears reflects on a difficult few years in her documentary For the Record.

Please do not send fan mail to any address you have. Nothing will be signed after the 20th of October. If that is the date on the envelope, it's gonna be tossed. I'm warning you with peace and love I have too much to do. Former Beatle Ringo Starr gives a short, sharp message to fans that he will no longer sign autographs.

Sir Terry is nothing less than legend and is an impossible act to follow, but somebody must and I just couldn't say no. I can't wait to get to Moscow. With a combination of cheap vodka and a language barrier what could possibly go wrong? Graham Norton gets excited about taking over the Eurovision Song Contest reins from Sir Terry Wogan.

She came through to the studio, we kissed her on the cheek and the programme went on air, so at no point had we any idea what condition she might be in. The last thing I want to do is to witness a car crash in front of my eyes. Phillip Schofield on Kerry Katona's bizarre appearance on This Morning, during which she slurred her words and appeared confused.

When I first saw her, I didn't think we looked alike at all. Then during the convention, I started to think, 'OK, maybe a little.' I expected people to be like, 'Ahhh, we thought it'd be better than that.' I stand by the pieces as both fair and quite gentle…We glue my ears down. That's one of the tricks… I'll tell you, that lady is five times better-looking than I am. Comic actress Tina Fey, who wowed audiences with her regular spoofs of Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live.

Heather Mills fought her own divorce case in the High Court

I felt like my vote was the vote that put him into office. It was down to one vote, and that was going to be my vote. And that may not be true, but that's how much power it felt like I had. P Diddy on how he elected Barrack Obama.

The wife for her part must have felt rather swept off her feet by a man as famous as the husband. I think this may well have warped her perception leading her to indulge in make-belief. The objective facts simply do not support her case. Mr Justice Bennett offers his professional opinion of Heather Mills following her very public divorce case at the High Court.

"SAYINGS"

"THE HARDEST ARITHMETIC TO MASTER IS THAT
WHICH ENABLES US TO COUNT OUR BLESSINGS"!

BOOS AS SINGER OPENS HARRODS SALE!

Katherine Jenkins was met by Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed

Anti-fur campaigners booed opera singer Katherine Jenkins as she arrived at Harrods to open its winter sale.

Protesters shouted "shame on Katherine" as she arrived by horse-drawn carriage.

The Welsh star turned out after chart-topping singer Leona Lewis reportedly refused to open the sale because of Harrods' policy of selling fur.

Protesters claim Harrods is the only major store in the UK to sell imported fur. No-one from the Knightsbridge store was available for comment.

The boos were eventually drowned out by cheers from bargain hunters queuing outside as the singer was ushered into the store by owner Mohamed Al Fayed.

Anti-fur protesters turned out in force for the sale

Campaigner John Wilson, from the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, said: "We are gathered here today because of our disgust at Ms Jenkins who professes to be against animal cruelty and the fur trade."

Followed by a group of bagpipe players, Ms Jenkins, who is from Neath, visited the shop's stationery, pets and musical instruments departments.

She was pictured buying two Jasmine di Milo dresses - one in grey and one in black.

She told reporters: "Personally I do not eat meat or wear fur, but people are entitled to their opinions."

Some bargain-hunters had been queuing from midnight to buy goods marked down by as much as 50%.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

TALEBAN 'WILL KILL SCHOOL GIRLS' !

Taleban militants in the Swat valley in north-west Pakistan have threatened to kill girls who attend school.

A local Taleban commander ordered parents to stop sending their daughters to school by 15 January.

In comments broadcast on an illegal radio station, he threatened to blow up schools which enrolled female students.

This year alone, Taleban militants have destroyed more than 130 schools in the Swat valley. They want to bring in Islamic sharia law in the region.

Militant attacks on schools in the region have deprived more than 17,000 students of education.

Although schools for girls have come under attack on numerous occasions in the past, this is the first time Taleban militants have issued a complete ban on girls attending them, the BBC's Ethirajan Anbarasan says.

A Taleban spokesman said the prohibition would remain in place unless and until Islamic sharia law was fully implemented in the region.

State-run schools are seen by the insurgents as key symbols of the government.

Now the militants have threatened to destroy private schools as well.

These schools are not Islamic religious institutions and the students are taught courses based on the government syllabus.

Locals say the ongoing attacks on schools have dealt a severe blow to education of girls and young women in the Swat valley.

Those who can afford it have already moved out of the region, but the poor have no other option than keeping their daughters at home, our correspondent says.

Al-Qaeda and Taleban militants are active in the Swat valley, which has been the scene of an insurgency since August 2007.

Hundreds of people have been killed since then in battles between security forces and militants led by Maulana Fazlullah, a cleric with links to the Pakistan Taleban movement.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

SCORES DIE IN ISRAELI AIR STRIKES !

Palestinians say Israeli F-16 bombers have launched a series of air strikes against key targets in the Gaza Strip, killing and injuring dozens of people.

Missiles destroyed security compounds run by the militant group Hamas in the centre of Gaza City, killing at least 120 people, Hamas officials said.

The strikes, the most intense Israeli attacks on Gaza in recent times, come after the expiry of a truce with Hamas.

Israel has threatened an offensive to stop the firing of rockets from Gaza.

Israel confirmed the strikes, saying they were launched in response to continued rocket fire by Palestinian militants against Israeli towns.

They targeted "Hamas terror operatives" as well as training camps and weaponry storage warehouses, the country's military said in a statement.

Hamas quickly vowed to carry out revenge attacks on Israel in response to the air strikes.

Reports of the casualties in Gaza mounted swiftly after news broke of the Israeli operation.

Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, initially said at least 40 people had been killed when a missile hit security headquarters in and around Gaza City.

That figure quickly rose, Hamas saying 120 were killed and some 400 people injured, the BBC Katya Adler reports from Jerusalem.

Medics in Gaza also reported high casualties, saying 120 people died in Gaza City and 23 in the southern city of Khan Younis, Reuters news agency said.

"Most security headquarters in Gaza were completely destroyed in the Zionist shelling," the Hamas-run al-Aqsa TV station said.

The air strikes are the most intense Israel has launched against Gaza for some time, and come amid rumours that that a ground operation is imminent.

Israeli security officials have been briefing about the possibility of a new offensive into Gaza for some days now, says the BBC's Paul Wood, in Jerusalem.

But most reports centred on the possibility of a ground offensive, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was not expected to authorise any operation until Sunday at the earliest.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CHINA BEGINS ANTI-PIRACY MISSION!

Three Chinese naval ships have set sail for waters off Somalia to protect Chinese vessels from pirate attacks.

Two destroyers and a supply ship left the port of Sanya on Hainan island to join warships from other nations already patrolling the area.

It will be the Chinese navy's first operation beyond the Pacific.

There have been more than 100 pirate attacks this year off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest sea lanes.

On Thursday, the German navy said it had foiled an attempt by pirates to hijack an Egyptian cargo vessel off Somalia.

Six Somali pirates were captured by sailors of the frigate Karlsruhe in the Gulf of Aden. However, the pirates were immediately released on the orders of the German government, officials told the BBC.

Japan's prime minister also indicated that his country was considering sending ships to help combat piracy.

"Each nation is taking measures. So, Japan should also take its own steps," Taro Aso said.

The commander of China's South Sea Fleet, Rear Adm Du Jingchen, said his personnel were prepared for a complicated and long-term mission.

"Acts of piracy in the Gulf of Aden and coastal waters off Somalia have been increasingly rampant since the beginning of this year, posing a severe danger to the safety of ships and members from many countries, including China," China's Defence Ministry spokesman Huang Xueping said.

"Apart from this, pirates have also been threatening ships delivering humanitarian relief items to Somalia by international organisations. Piracy has become an international scourge."

The Chinese military says there have been seven attacks this year on Chinese vessels in the area.

It says its forces will board and inspect suspected pirate ships, try to rescue those who are attacked and mount a vigorous defence if they themselves come under attack.

However, defence ministry officials insist that China's doctrine of non-interference in other nations' affairs has not changed, the BBC's Chris Hogg in Beijing says.

The Chinese will work with other members of the international task force in the area.

China has no bases in the region so keeping its forces well supplied during what is expected to be a lengthy deployment is a major challenge, our correspondent adds.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

BELGIAN 'INTERNET BABY' SENT HOME!

A Belgian baby boy allegedly sold by his parents to a Dutch couple has been transferred to Belgian authorities, Dutch child protection officials say.

"The baby was handed over today to the Belgian authorities who will decide what to do with him," spokesman Kees Dijkman told the AFP news agency.

"Baby J" was allegedly sold in July for thousands of euros.

A court in Zwolle, in the Netherlands, ordered a month ago that he be placed under temporary state guardianship.

The judge said the case should be reviewed after six to 12 weeks, during which time child protection authorities were to seek a permanent arrangement.

The Dutch Child Protection Council accused the couple of violating international adoption rules.

The Council says the baby should be placed in the care of a "neutral foster family" with no ties to either of the couples.

The case of the baby was brought to light by the Dutch TV programme Netwerk in a recent broadcast.

The Belgian couple, from the northern city of Ghent, already had a child and decided to sell the newborn during the summer because they could not afford to raise two children, Netwerk said.

The child's aspirant parents, who are reportedly unable to have children of their own, made contact with the boy's biological mother after seeing a web advertisement, and took him a few hours after he was born.

Dutch media have claimed that they paid the child's biological parents between 5,000 and 10,000 euros ($12,000, £9,500).
BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZIMBABWE ACTIVIST SET FOR COURT !

Mukoko's disappearance prompted a nationwide search

The prominent Zimbabwean human rights activist Jestina Mukoko who was abducted from her home three weeks ago is due to appear in court.

The state-run Herald newspaper said Ms Mukoko is charged with attempting to recruit people for military training to try to overthrow the government.

It is unclear when or where the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project was found.

The police denied opposition claims that they had been holding her.

The Herald said Ms Mukoko is one of a group of people facing the charges who will appear in court in Harare.

According The Herald, a Zimbabwean police statement said one of the defendants allegedly tried to recruit a police constable to undergo military training in Botswana with a view to forcibly deposing President Mugabe's government and replacing it with one led by the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

Ms Mukoko alleged abduction from her home outside the capital, Harare, by 15 armed men on 3 December, prompted a nationwide search.

It was ordered by a High Court judge who, in an unusual move, ordered police to search for her.

The judge also ordered national broadcaster the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation to run radio and television appeals for information about her.

Last week members of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights took to the streets of Harare to highlight Ms Mukoko's plight.

They also carried banners banners protesting against what they say was the abduction of a number of human rights activists and MDC supporters since October.

BBC NEWS REPOERT.

MADOFF INVESTOR COMMITS SUICIDE!

Mr Villehuchet was found dead in his 22nd floor office on Madison Avenue

A French investment manager who put $1.4bn (£1bn) into Bernard Madoff's fraud-hit scheme has killed himself in his New York office, police said.

Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, 65, was found sitting at his desk with both wrists slashed, New York police spokesman Paul Browne said.

A bottle of pills was found near him, but there was no suicide note.

Mr Madoff is accused of running a $50bn (£34bn) Ponzi scheme that wiped out investors around the world.

Big funds like Mr Villehuchet's were especially hard hit.

Paris newspaper La Tribune said he spent the past week trying "day and night to find a way to recoup his investors' money". Mr Villehuchet, who was married without children, was co-founder of money manager Access International.

Mr Madoff's fraud has ensnared Wall Street investors and charities around the world, although the full extent of the losses is as yet unknown.

Mr Madoff is under house arrest while an investigation is underway

He is under house arrest in his Manhattan apartment, and his assets have been frozen.

Another investor who gave Mr Madoff $2m (£1.35m) to manage has taken legal action against US financial regulators.

Phyllis Molchatsky, a 61-year-old retiree from New York, is seeking $1.7m in damages from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

It is believed to be the first attempt by an investor to recover losses from the SEC.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

DIALLING FOR INFORMATION AND NEWS!

Digital Planet Alka Marwaha BBC World Service

The project is using mobiles, landlines and internet phones

A new information service to deliver news and public-interest information via land, mobile and internet phones is being trialled in Zimbabwe.

The 'Freedom Fone' project is being run by a non-governmental organisation called Kubatana.

Digital Planet, BBC World Service's technology programme, spoke to Brenda Burrell who is the organisation's technical director.

"What we are trying to do with Freedom Fone is simplify the interactive use of voice response (IVR) for non-technical users", said Ms Burrell.

"IVR has been around for many years now and many people have used it when they hit an automated answering service that directs them to select certain numbers from their keypad to direct their call to the relevant place.

"The aim of the project is to make IVR a means to which people can extend their information campaigns," she added.

Sexual violence against women is a massive problem in DR Congo

Audio files are stored by Freedom Fone in a content management system, which is updated through a simple browser interface.

These audio clips populate an IVR menu through which callers can navigate for information.

"Essentially what you do is upload audio files, so they build these little audio menus, so that you can welcome someone to your service and offer them options that they can select," said Ms Burrell.

The target market for Freedom Fone is among development organisations or social groups in communities, who know that the best way to reach their audiences is through telephony rather than through tools like the internet and email.

"The most common technology device they have is a mobile phone and many more people have access to those than they do to the internet and email," said Ms Burrell.

"We know that increasingly in some countries, more people have access to mobile phones than they do to television or radio," she added.

It could be information on where they could get themselves tested for HIV Brenda Burrell

Although texting could be another way of delivering information, it does have its limitations. "One of the limits of SMS is there are only 160 characters that you can use to leave your message," said Ms Burrell.

Freedom Fone has been used as a prototype in a number of information campaigns, one of which was a sexual health campaign called "Auntie Stella".

"Young people have questions that they are often embarassed to ask, so we felt that this was an interesting way to deploy Freedom Fone - targeting an audience that typically has taken to mobile telephony," said Ms Burrell.

As the project is still in its early stages, every information campaign is providing new and creative ways of disseminating the information using IVR.

"It could be information on where they could get themselves tested for HIV, or it could be a service that provides a very small minority with information in their own language," said Ms Burrell.

The feedback from those that have used Freedom Fone has been positive.

"We found people to be quite inspired by the prospects of what could be done with the tool," said Ms Burrell."We have had people from the DRC contact us, they are interested in using the tool to provide support to women who have been the victims of sexual assault as a result of the unrest in that country.

"We have also had people from Thailand, to help support sex workers because they are an audience that's unlikely to access radio and will need to be producing their own support materials over time."It's just a question of re-directing information and how we package it," she added.

People can use Freedom Fone to convey whatever message and whatever content they need to Brenda Burrell

One of the major drawbacks of the phone information service is the cost. "Its major impediment is that people have to dial up and pay for information, or your service has to pay to dial or call back," said Ms Burrell.

The project is based in Harare, Zimbabwe, where news and information are heavily censored by the government, so the safety of those using and consuming information via Freedom Fone is an issue.

"People can use Freedom Fone to convey whatever message and whatever content they need to," said Ms Burrell.

"However, this tool is going to make a difference to anybody reaching out in the health services or those working in disaster relief scenarios," she added.

Digital Planet is broadcast on BBC World Service on Tuesday at 1232 GMT and repeated at 1632 GMT, 2032 GMT and on Wednesday at 0032 GMT.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

VOTE PROBLEM ON STRICTLY SPECIAL !

Spoiler warning: This story contains details about the Christmas Day edition of Strictly Come Dancing

Rachel Stevens came second in the 2008 series of Strictly

Recording of the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special was delayed after four couples came joint top on the judges' leader board.

The tie meant the remaining two couples could not win the show after the studio audience had voted.

The audience was asked to recast its votes after head judge Len Goodman re-ranked the relevant couples.

A BBC spokeswoman said the show was stopped to give Goodman "an opportunity to reach a considered decision".

Actor Tom Chambers won the Strictly final on Saturday in a public vote.

Monday night's recording of the Christmas show did not involve a public telephone vote. It features former contestants competing against this year's top three to be named Christmas champion.

The BBC said the recording was stopped for more than an hour while a "contingency" plan was put in place.

A statement said: "During the course of filming the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special, there was a four-way tie at the top of the leader board after the judges had voted.

"In these circumstances Len Goodman, as head judge, ranks the tying couples and that is what happened on this occasion. "In order to allow for this contingency the show was stopped to give Len an opportunity to reach a considered decision and for producers to brief the presenters and dancers on the changed running order."

The 2008 series of Strictly Come Dancing sparked controversy after Chambers was saved from the semi-final dance-off by a last-minute decision to let all three remaining couples go through to the final.

The decision followed a tie between Stevens and Snowdon, who were awarded exactly the same score by the judges, meaning the public vote could not save Chambers.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

DOZENS TRAPPED ON SINGAPORE WHEEL!

The wheel stands 30m taller than Britain's London Eye

More than 100 people were trapped for several hours after the world's largest observation wheel, the Singapore Flyer, suffered a breakdown.

The wheel ground to a halt just before 1700 (0900 GMT), when one of the drive motors experienced a short circuit, a spokeswoman told AFP news agency.

About 173 people were on board at the time. Some were later lowered to the ground in harnesses, witnesses said.

The wheel restarted just after 2300, six hours after it stopped, AFP said.

The wheel is 165m (541ft) high and looks out over Singapore's Marina Bay. It is 30m taller than Britain's London Eye.

One passenger who had been trapped for several hours told Channel News Asia that the wheel jerked and then ground to a halt.

About 10 people were in her cabin, she told the channel. It had been very hot when the air-conditioning went off but then it came on again, she said.

The wheel became operational in February, and a ride in it takes about 30 minutes.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

GUNMAN 'REQUESTS PAKISTAN HELP' !

Mr Qasab has been in custody since the first night of the attacks

India says the sole surviving gunman from last month's Mumbai (Bombay) attacks has sought help from Pakistan.

The request came in a letter handed to Pakistani diplomats in Delhi.

Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab, who is in Indian custody, admitted in the letter that he and the other attackers were from Pakistan, Indian officials said.

Pakistani officials say they are studying the contents of the letter. Islamabad has so far refused to acknowledge the gunmen were Pakistani.

Relations between the two countries have been severely strained since the attacks, in which more than 170 people were killed.

Earlier, India's Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the international community had not done enough to exert pressure on Pakistan, which denies any involvement in the attacks.

On Monday fighter jets flew low over three major cities in Pakistan amid the heightened tension.

India's foreign ministry said the acting high commissioner of Pakistan had been handed the letter from the gunman on Monday evening.

Ultimately it is we who have to deal with this problem Pranab Mukherjee Pakistan militants 'world threat' Tears as Mumbai hotels reopen

"In his letter addressed to the Pakistan High Commission, Kasab [Qasab] has stated that he and the other terrorists killed in the attack were from Pakistan and has sought a meeting with the Pakistan High Commission," the ministry said.

Reports suggested the letter contained a request for legal help from Pakistan. Indian lawyers have so far refused to represent Mr Qasab in court.

Pakistani officials confirmed receipt of the letter and said they were examining its contents.

The Pakistani government is under intense pressure to act decisively against militants operating on its soil.

Addressing Indian envoys from across the world, Mr Mukherjee accused Islamabad of "denial" and "shifting the blame" for last month's attacks.

"We have so far acted with utmost restraint and are hopeful that international community will use its influence to urge the Pakistani government to take effective action."

But Mr Mukherjee said that although there had been "some effort so far by the international community... this is not enough. Much more needs to be done."

His statement was the latest in a series of strongly worded diplomatic warnings from India.

The BBC's Chris Morris in Delhi says the Indian government is clearly determined to maintain pressure on Islamabad to act.

India has blamed Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for the attacks, which began on 26 November and lasted three days.

Last week, Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari said claims that the sole surviving attacker had been identified by his own father as coming from Pakistan had not been proven.

The two hotels caught up in the attacks, the Trident-Oberoi and Taj Mahal Palace, reopened for business on Sunday.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

SOMALIA FACING 'HIDDEN GENOCIDE'!

The UN envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, has said there is a "hidden genocide" taking place in the country.

Mr Abdallah spoke as the African Union's peace and security council held urgent talks on how to boost the peacekeeping force there.

Ethiopia says its 3,000 troops will withdraw by the end of the year, which some fear will lead to a power vacuum.

The AU force already in Mogadishu is too small to resist resurgent Islamist and nationalist fighters.

UN head Ban Ki-moon last week rejected calls for UN peacekeepers to be sent. He said the situation in Somalia was too dangerous and there was no peace to keep.

SOMALIA'S WOES 3m need food aid - a third of the population 1m displaced Government only controls Baidoa Islamist groups control much of the country No effective government since 1991 Piracy on the rise

"The Somali problem is a problem for the whole region," said Mr Abdallah, the UN special envoy to Somalia, reports the AFP news agency. "There is a hidden genocide in Somalia which has sacrificed entire generations."

Somalia has not had a functioning national government since 1991.

Ethiopian troops intervened two years ago to oust Islamists from the capital and install the internationally recognised government. But that government is now in disarray and different Islamist groups now control much of southern Somalia.

On Sunday, the East African regional group, Igad, decided to impose sanctions on the Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, after he tried to sack Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein.

Parliament last week said the prime minister's dismissal was illegal and gave him an overwhelming vote of confidence.

The Ethiopian troops, a weak AU force and troops loyal to the interim Somali government are limited to parts of Mogadishu and the central town of Baidoa, where parliament is based.

The AU ministers now have the task of trying to beef up the AU mission in Somalia, which will no longer have the comfort of knowing it can call for Ethiopian back-up when needed, says the BBC's Elizabeth Blunt in Addis Ababa, where the AU meeting is being held.

On Sunday, AU commission head Jean Ping raised the prospect that Nigeria, Uganda and Burundi could each send a battalion - about 850 troops - to bolster the 3,200 peacekeepers already in Mogadishu.

But the AU commissioner for peace and security Ramtane Lamamra on Monday said a possible offer by Nigeria to provide troops needed further clarification.

He also said he did not yet have all the elements he needed to make a firm recommendation on the future of the AU's peacekeeping force in Somalia, Amisom.

The AU special representative for Somalia Nicolas Bwakira said the offers from Burundi and Uganda, whose troops make up the existing force, were conditional on:

• A clear indication that the UN would eventually take over

• The establishment of an inclusive government in Mogadishu

• Receiving support from the international community

Our correspondent says none of these conditions has so far been met.

The foreign ministers of the six-member Inter-governmental Authority on Development (Igad) came out in support of Prime Minister Nur in the political conflict with President Yusuf.

After their meeting, the group said: "[Igad] regrets the attempts by President Yusuf to unconstitutionally appoint a new prime minister that Igad does not recognise, and decides to impose sanctions on him and his associates immediately."

Mr Yusuf had said he sacked the prime minister a week ago because the government had been "paralysed by corruption, inefficiency and treason" and failed to bring peace.

The lack of an effective government has led to the rise of piracy off the Somali coast.

Fighting between pro-government forces and Islamist militias has led more than a million people to flee their homes.

Aid agencies say some three million people need food aid - about a third of the population - but attacks by pirates and militias make it extremely difficult to deliver humanitarian assistance.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

FARC 'WILL RELEASE SIX HOSTAGES' !

Colombia's Farc rebels have said they are going to release six people being held as hostages in jungle camps in the next few days, local media say.

The two politicians and four security officers have been held by the leftist group for several years.

A Farc statement said the captives would be handed over to a left-wing Colombian senator, reported Reuters.

The Farc is still holding hundreds of hostages, either for ransom or to exchange for government-held rebels.

The statement gave no date for the release but said it would be "soon", the Associated Press news agency reported. The text said the release was a gesture aimed at initiating a prisoner exchange with the government.

Three police officers and a soldier would be freed first, followed by an ex-governor and a former congressman, the statement said.

In October, ex-Congressman Oscar Tulio Lizcano managed to escape after eight years in captivity. And in July, 15 hostages, including former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, were freed in a military operation.

Ten of thousands of Colombians have taken part in protests demanding the release of those still held by the Farc (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).

The group has fought to overthrow the Colombian government and install a Marxist government since the 1960s.

In the 1990s it turned to the drug trade to raise money for its struggle and has suffered a series of defeats in recent years, including a number of defections and the Betancourt rescue.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS"

"NEVER LET YOUR FAILURES GO TO YOUR HEART

OR YOUR SUCCESSES GO TO YOUR HEAD" !

TOYOTA BRACED FOR HISTORIC LOSS!

Global demand for Japanese products has plunged

Japan's biggest carmaker Toyota has forecast its first annual loss in 71 years due to plummeting sales and a surge in the value of the yen.

The firm said it expected a loss of 150bn yen (£1.1bn) in yearly operating profits - from its core operations.

Japan also posted a trade deficit of $2.5bn (£1.7bn) in November as exports fell at a record rate.

The rising yen saw export levels down 26.7% from a year earlier, the ministry of finance said.

The carmaker recorded an operating profit of 2.27 trillion yen last year.

Toyota said it still expected to make a profit on a net level for the year ended March but has cut its forecast sharply to 50bn yen, down from a previous estimate of 550bn yen.

It is the second profit warning by Toyota in less than seven weeks.The latest estimate is far lower than its net profit of 1.7 trillion yen earned the previous year.

Toyota's president Katsuaki Watanabe said that the company now expected to sell 8.96 million vehicles around the world this year, down 4% from the previous year.

Unlike previous years, he gave no goal for 2009.

Toyota said in a statement it was cutting its profits forecast because of the soaring yen "as well as a review of sales plans following a faster than expected contraction of the auto market".

Japanese carmakers have all been hurt by plummeting car sales in their key overseas markets, including the US.

The surging yen has eroded their overseas earnings and also hit their profits - the dollar has fallen to 13-year lows against the Japanese currency.

Honda last week cut its annual profit forecast by 67%, and outlined a list of counter-measures such as putting off non-urgent investments to prop up its profitability.

In the United States, President Bush threw the struggling carmakers General Motors and Chrysler a lifeline of up to $17.4bn to stave off bankruptcy as they reel under slumping demand.

Commenting on Toyota's latest announcement, analysts said it underlined the problems now facing Japan's car exporters.

"This is very, very, very bad. There's a chance that they could fall into the red in the next business year as well," said Koichi Ogawa of Daiwa SB Investments. "This is also not just a problem for Toyota. What is good for Toyota is good for the Japanese economy."

Fujio Ando of Chibagin Asset Management added: "This shows how rapidly and badly the auto sector has deteriorated.""Toyota will likely revise down its earnings numbers or sales forecast again in late January or February as I don't think the business environment will become any better," he said.

Japan typically runs a trade surplus due to strong demand for its products - but the surging yen has hit demand for its goods.

Japanese exports fell sharply to all areas but those to the US were worst-hit, plunging 33.8% - also a record drop. Shipments to the European Union were down 30.8% while those to China fell 24.5%, the biggest fall since 1995, said Reuters news agency. Exports to the rest of Asia declined 26.7%.

Imports were also down - 14.4% overall - due in part to lower oil prices.

Japan's economy - the world's second-largest after the US - has slipped into its first recession in seven years after two quarters of negative growth in a row. The government has forecast zero growth in the year ending March 2010.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ISRAELI LEADERS 'TO TOPPLE HAMAS' !

The two leading candidates to become Israel's next prime minister have vowed if elected to topple the Palestinian Islamist movement, Hamas, in Gaza.
The threats by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Likud party leader Binyamin Netanyahu came after PM Ehud Olmert warned against making bold statements.
A six-month Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas, which runs Gaza, came to an end on Friday.
On Sunday rockets fired by militants in Gaza hit a house in the town of Sderot.
No-one was injured in the attack, though a worker at a nearby farming community was hurt when another device landed in a field.
The Israeli military has said militants fired some 30 rockets and mortar bombs into Israel on Saturday. A Palestinian militant was killed in an Israeli air strike.

At the Israeli cabinet meeting on Sunday, the head of the country's domestic security agency, Shin Bet, said that Hamas had increased the range of its rockets during the ceasefire and could now hit several southern Israeli cities.

Yuval Diskin said the rockets could now reach Kiryat Gat, Ashdod and even Beersheba, about 40km (25 miles) from Gaza.
He also told ministers that while Hamas had renewed its attacks, it was "interested in continuing the truce, but wants to improve its terms".
"It wants us to lift the siege [of Gaza], stop attacks, and extend the truce to include [the West Bank]," Mr Diskin added.
Hamas blamed Israel for the end of the ceasefire on Friday, saying it had not respected its terms, including the lifting of the blockade.
Israeli officials insist that there was no commitment to ease the siege, under which they have allowed in little more than basic humanitarian aid.

Each side accuses the other of breaking the ceasefire.
Prime Minister Olmert said during the cabinet meeting that the government had agreed to the ceasefire with Hamas last June with little doubt or hesitation.
"Israel has always hoped for and wanted quiet for the residents of the South and that they should enjoy genuine calm and be free of the threat of unceasing Qassam and mortar attacks that have disrupted life in the South for a very long period," he said.
Mr Olmert and Defence Minister Ehud Barak also warned the cabinet and opposition parties against making "bold statements" about plans for a major military operation in Gaza.
"A government doesn't rush to battle, but doesn't avoid it either," Mr Olmert said. "Israel will know how to give the proper response at the right time in the right way, responsibly."
'Policy of attack'
Shortly afterwards, however, Ms Livni told a meeting of her Kadima party that she would topple Hamas if she became prime minister after the general election on 10 February.

"The state of Israel, and a government under me, will make it a strategic objective to topple the Hamas regime in Gaza," she said. "The means for doing this should be military, economic and diplomatic.
"Israel must react when it is fired upon, must re-establish its force of dissuasion and stop the rockets," she added. "This is what has to be done and this is what I will do."
Mr Netanyahu, whose right-wing Likud party is currently ahead in the polls, meanwhile called for a more "active policy of attack", accusing the current government of being too "passive".
"In the long-term, the toppling of the Hamas regime is inevitable," he said while visiting Sderot on Sunday.
He said residents of southern Israeli towns close to the Gaza Strip were "paying a hefty price for the mistakes made by Livni and her ministers" since the Israeli withdrawal from the territory in 2005.
Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas government in Gaza and former Palestinian prime minister, dismissed the Israeli threats.
"Nothing can finish off our people," he said. "It is not our people who are escalating the situation; it is the Israeli occupation which should have stuck to the conditions of the truce."
The BBC's Katya Adler in Jerusalem says the countdown to February's election has started with the candidates eager to court an electorate fearful of the future.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned that a "major escalation of violence would have grave consequences for the protection of civilians in Israel and Gaza, the welfare of the Gazan civilian population, and the sustainability of political efforts".
BBC NEWS REPORT

TEN CHAINS 'FACE CLOSURE' 2009!

More than 10 national or regional retail chains risk going bust next month, insolvency experts are warning.

The warning comes from Nick Hood, a partner at Begbies Traynor.

"Not a lot of them are profitable because of the discounting at a time when they would normally generate all their profits for the year," he said.

It comes as research from accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests that 82% of retailers are discounting their merchandise this weekend.

The figures are compiled from London's Oxford Street, where many of the country's top retailers have stores.

One month ago, only 52% of them were cutting prices.

"The problem facing the management of retail chains is whether they can find funding to restock in January, pay their VAT bills and survive through until Christmas starts again next October," Mr Hood told the BBC.

The danger facing them is that banks and suppliers that might have been prepared to support retailers during Christmas trading, may be unwilling to do so afterwards.

Retailers are vulnerable in January because they generally have more cash and less stock than at any other time of the year, so if creditors are going to force them into administration it is the best time to do so.

It has already been a tough few months for well-known retailers, with MFI already having closed down and Woolworths due to shut its shops in January.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

POLICE BREAK UP RUSSIAN PROTESTS!

Witnesses said at least 100 people were detained by police

Russian riot police have forcibly broken up a rally being held in the eastern city of Vladivostok.

About 500 people had gathered in the city's central square to demonstrate against a new tax on imported cars.

Witnesses said police officers kicked protesters, damaged journalists' equipment and made dozens of arrests.

Vladivostok, one of several cities holding protests, depends heavily on car imports from Japan and critics say the tax could push prices up by 50%.

The tax is intended to help prop up Russia's domestic car industry and prevent people buying cheaper, imported products.

Protests against it began a week ago and have also been held in at least nine other cities in far eastern Russia, local Russian media report.

Most of the demonstrations were dispersed by police, said the independent Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy.

More are planned for Moscow and other cities.

Witnesses said the several hundred people who had gathered in central Vladivostok were singing and dancing but that the rally was peaceful with no sign of political placards.

Some of the protesters were reported to have been shouting slogans against the Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin.The protesters were ordered to disperse by police who told them the rally was unauthorised, before members of the Omon riot police began to arrest people, hauling them into waiting vans, said witnesses.

Several journalists were detained and there were reports that others were injured or had their cameras and recording equipment damaged by the police.

"They ran into the crowd, grabbed people and started pushing them to the ground, taking them into cars," protester Yevgeniy Makarov told Russian media.

"If someone started struggling ... they started twisting their arms, kicking them in the back. Very many people were taken into vans, just thrown there."

A 62-year-old woman who saw the incident said the police were also arresting passers-by.

"They started taking people away without any sort of comment," she said.

The BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow says protests against the new tax have been fuelled by the severe impact of the global economic crisis on Russia.

The country's industrial output dropped 10.8% during November and its reliance on raw material exports means it has been been hit by falling oil prices and a reduction in demand.

But such open displays of anger are an unusual sight in Russia, where the government keeps tight control of the public and the media, says our correspondent.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CHARITY WARNS ON ZIMBABWE CHOLERA!

The UN has warned the total number of cases could reach 60,000

The international medical charity, Medecins Sans Frontieres, predicts that the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe will last well into 2009.

Manuel Lopez, the head of MSF in the country, told the BBC the epidemic was still at a critical level and would not subside until the rains end in March.

Even then, he said, the lack of clean drinking water means that cholera will be endemic in Zimbabwe.

The disease has claimed 1,123 lives and infected more than 20,000 people.

Mr Lopez says so many clinics and hospitals have closed that large sections of the population have no access to medical care.

"The ministry of health has declared a national emergency," said Mr Lopez.

"So it is very clear that the situation is very, very critical in terms of health people's access to health care."

Latest UN figures include a new outbreak of hundreds of cases in Chegutu, near the capital Harare, which has been worst hit by the disease.

MSF says that when it arrived in Chegutu 10 days ago, it found the local facilities completely overwhelmed.

Patients were lying on the floor, some next to dead bodies, sanitation services were non-existent, and there was no water and no food to be found.

"The situation was absolute chaos," said Luis Maria Tello, the MSF Emergency Team Medical Coordinator.

"There were no beds and patients everywhere. People were dying of thirst because there was no water. The disposal of the dead was one of the first priorities set by the emergency team. "Dead people were lying everywhere," said Mr Tello.

The easily preventable disease has spread because of the collapse of health services and water sanitation in Zimbabwe.The UN World Health Organization has said the total number of cases could reach 60,000 unless the epidemic is stopped.

South Africa's Red Cross is rushing much-needed medicine to Zimbabwe

A week ago Mr Mugabe said the outbreak had been "arrested".

He claimed Western powers wanted to use an epidemic as an excuse to invade Zimbabwe and topple him.

Meanwhile, South African ruling ANC leader Jacob Zuma said in a radio interview there was no reason for sending troops to Zimbabwe.

"Why military intervention when there is no war?" he told South Africa's 702 Talk Radio.

"We should be pressurising them to see the light."

Zimbabwe claimed earlier this week that Botswana, which has joined growing international calls for Mr Mugabe to quit, was hosting military training camps for MDC rebels.

But the current chairperson of the the Southern African Development Community, South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, said on Wednesday: "We never believed that."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

MUGABE A THREAT TO UNITY, SAYS US !

The United States says the power-sharing deal in Zimbabwe will not work with Robert Mugabe as president.

The US would not reverse sanctions policy while Mr Mugabe remained in power as he had "lost touch with reality", a senior US official said.

As well as suffering economic collapse, Zimbabwe is suffering from a cholera epidemic charities say is critical.

Talks on a power-sharing deal with the opposition following disputed elections in March have been stalled.

The opposition MDC accuse Mr Mugabe of breaking the deal.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CHAMBERS CROWNED STRICTLY CHAMP!

Actor Tom Chambers has won BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing, beating former S Club Seven star Rachel Stevens in a public vote in the final.

Chambers had performed four dances with professional partner Camilla Dallerup. The Holby City star, who got married during the series, said: "The first person I want to thank is my wife... I can't wait to be a newlywed."

Lisa Snowdon was eliminated after the first round of public voting, despite getting perfect marks from the judges.

However, the public chose to save Chambers and Stevens who then competed for the title, with a fresh public vote deciding the winner. Chambers heaped praise on his partner, telling a tearful Dallerup: "Tonight is about you because you absolutely deserve this more than anyone."

Stevens said she had "adored" dancing with partner Vincent Simone.She added: "I've just had the best time of my life. I want to thank everybody behind the scenes of this show, I want to thank the judges for giving me this opportunity; everyone is amazing."

The three celebrities each performed two dances in the first part of the final - ballroom and Latin - in a bid to win over the judges and the public.

Snowdon was awarded the maximum score of 80 by the judges. Stevens was in second place with 79, while Chambers scored 73.

Chambers put his honeymoon on hold to take part in the series

When the results were combined with those of last week's semi-final and eventually converted into new points, it left Stevens and Snowdon with three and Chambers with one.

However, once viewers had their say, Snowdon was eliminated.

Afterwards, she said: "It has been amazing. I know it's a cliche but I already feel like a winner. I've had a great time - it's been brilliant."

Her dance partner, Brendan Cole, paid tribute to the model, describing her as "fantastic" and a "hard worker".

Strictly Come Dancing presenters Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly opened the grand final by apologising to viewers for the voting problems which marred last week's show.

The programme sparked controversy after Chambers was saved from the semi-final dance-off by a last-minute decision to let all three remaining couples go through to the final.

The decision followed a tie between Stevens and Snowdon, who were awarded exactly the same score by the judges, meaning the public vote could not save Chambers.

Stevens thanked the public for supporting her during the series

Daly told viewers: "We are sorry we didn't realise this earlier but when we did we took the fairest decision in the circumstances to put all three couples through to the final."

Votes cast last week were carried forward to the final - but viewers who want a refund can obtain one via the show's official website.

Last week's voting problems were not the first to hit this year's Strictly Come Dancing.

Many viewers were angry after former contestant John Sergeant quit earlier in the series. The former BBC political correspondent was criticised by the show's judges for his clumsy footwork, but was kept in the show by viewers' votes. Sergeant returned to the dancefloor in the grand final when he performed with the other celebrities who were voted out during the 2008 series.

The five previous winners of Strictly Come Dancing - Natasha Kaplinsky, Jill Halfpenny, Darren Gough, Mark Ramprakash and Alesha Dixon - also appeared, with all but Kaplinsky performing a group routine to a version of Robbie Williams' Let Me Entertain You.

The show also featured a performance by singer Duffy.

Speaking before the final, Chambers - who was the bookies' favourite going into the final - said he wanted to win for Dallerup. "It would mean granting Camilla her dream. She's been working for this for six years and she's been in the semi-final twice," he said.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

BANKER FOUND HANGED IN HOTEL ROOM !

A senior banker with HSBC has been found hanged in a room in a five-star hotel, police have confirmed.

Scotland Yard said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of Danish-born married father-of-two Christen Schnor, 49.

He was found on Wednesday afternoon at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower Hotel in Knightsbridge, west London.

A spokesman for HSBC said: "Our thoughts are with his family and we will do all we can to help them."

Mr Schnor studied at Henley Management College and graduated in 1994.He joined HSBC in June 2007 when he was appointed head of insurance with responsibilities for Europe and the Middle East.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed officers had been called to reports of a hanging."The 49-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene. His death is being treated as non-suspicious," he said, adding that a post mortem examination would take place.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZIMBABWE - LETTER FROM THE DIASPORA !

19th December 2008.

Dear Friends.

This will be my last Letter from the diaspora for 2008. It has been a truly terrible year for Zimbabwe culminating in the cholera outbreak that is now sweeping the country, creating a humanitarian crisis of massive proportions. It is unutterably painful to be here in the UK and see the collecting boxes out in the charity shops and realise that Zimbabwe has fallen so low that it has now become the subject of public charity. Somalia, Dafur, the DRC have all been on the list of failed states requiring charity for their suffering people. Now we have Zimbabwe, the once 'shining jewel' of Africa' added to the list. Starvation and disease, state violence and political repression now reign supreme where once was peace and plenty. The truth has been subverted for lies and propaganda as greedy, power-hungry men and women prey on the nation and leech on its human and natural resources. It seems on the face of it that all that is good and fine in our African culture has been devoured for the sake of short-term gain for the few.

But hope is not lost. Listening to stories from inside Zimbabwe, I am constantly struck by the way Zimbabweans, black and white, help each other out in the incredible hardship of everyday living, sharing the little they have with each other. Away from the media and the glare of publicity, neighbours look out for each other, mindful that they are all in the same situation. While government ministers sound increasingly demented and deranged in their pronouncements about how it's all the fault of the Brits or the Americans, ordinary people get on with their lives as best they can in the nightmare of poverty and near-starvation that Mugabe and Zanu PF have created through sheer bad governance and lack of leadership.

Sadly, what 2008 has shown us once again is that the Zimbabwean people can expect no help from the AU or SADC. Their only interest appears to be in protecting Robert Mugabe and attacking the west's racism and 'neo-colonial intentions' South Africa, which might have been expected to be more than a little concerned about the flood of refugees crossing its borders - not to mention the spread of cholera - says nothing about the brutal abduction of Mugabe's political opponents or the disappearance of journalists. Instead, the Secretary General of SADC announces that SADC will investigate Patrick Chinamasa's claims of 'compelling evidence' that the MDC has training camps in Botswana for what he calls 'opposition rebels' preparing for war in order to bring about regime change. The hypocrisy and double-speak of the South African government is breath-taking. Once again they block any move to censure Mugabe at the UN yet continue to push for the formation of a Government of National Unity in the apparent belief that the political crisis in the country will be solved by Mugabe's virtual retention of power. Zimbabwean soldiers are fighting and dying in the DRC and South Africa utters not one word of condemnation of Mugabe's intervention in a war which is none of his concern unless it is to protect his diamond mines and ensure that he keeps his generals sweet.

Zimbabweans are a deeply spiritual people and the events of the last two weeks:- the death of Elliot Manyika; the shooting in mysterious circumstances and the motor accident which has put Joseph Chinotimba is hospital - have not gone unnoticed or unexplained. The spirits are angry and those with innocent blood on their hands are paying the price.

As we move into 2009 and resistance to the Mugabe regime mounts as it surely will, there will no doubt be more innocent blood shed. Mugabe 'threatens' the country with an election and we all know what that entails. He is fond of telling people that the liberation war was won through the barrel of a gun- nderopa, through blood but as he becomes increasingly isolated in his paranoid delusions he would do well to remember that he too is just as mortal as the rest of us. Despite what he may claim, Mugabe has not been granted the gift of immortality; Zimbabweans are a patient - some might even say passive - people and Mugabe takes full advantage of that. He 'knows his people' he would say, but he would do well to remember that the people's patience is not endless. They may be slow to anger but fearsome when the anger boils over. The Old Man needs to make his peace with the ancestors before it is too late.

Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH.

KIDNAP NOTES PLAGUE MEXICO PUPILS!

By Stephen Gibbs

A series of anonymous notes have been posted outside schools in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez threatening to kidnap pupils if money is not paid.

The notes state that teachers should hand over their end-of-year bonuses to avoid the threat to their students.

No arrests have been made over the threats, but drug cartels are believed to be responsible.

The city, on the US border, has one of the world's highest murder rates with more than 1,400 homicides this year.

Over the last few weeks several notes have been mysteriously pinned up at the entrance to schools in Ciudad Juarez.

They demand money from the staff, and threaten to harm both teachers and pupils if the request is not met.

One of the notes was pinned to a wall outside a kindergarten.

The extortion campaign appears to be timed to coincide with the Christmas bonuses teachers in Mexico receive in their December pay packets.

When news of the notes became public, many parents removed their children from school.

Ciudad Juarez is becoming infamous as the place where some of the most gruesome violence in Mexico's ongoing drug wars is concentrated.

More than a quarter of all the murders linked to organised crime in the country this year have been in the city.

As well as schools, hospitals are finding it increasingly difficult to function normally.

Last weekend, hundreds of doctors staged a protest in the city denouncing the extreme level of threats and kidnappings they face every day.

There have been several reports of gunmen entering hospitals to finish off wounded rivals, as they are being treated.

Several medical clinics have closed permanently.

Government officials say that they are doing all they can to defeat the drug cartels, and say much of the violence is a reflection of their success, as leaderless gangs fight one another for dominance.

But the social consequences of such prolonged and prolific violence might present a future battle for this country.

In many schools in northern Mexico, teachers report that their pupils have an increasing tendency to idolise narco-traffickers as untouchable heroes.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

U.S. STATES BRACED FOR WINTER STORM!

Traffic was disrupted by snow falls on Friday

A winter storm continued to sweep across north-eastern US after heavy snow and strong winds disrupted transport, power and schools.

Storm warnings were in place in a dozen states, with the National Weather Service warning of power outages and dangerous travel conditions.

Minnesota could face some of the worst of the blast, with 15 inches of snow forecast, and "impossible" road travel.

It comes after a storm on Friday grounded planes and closed schools.

Among other warnings, the National Weather Service said that in South Dakota there would be a fast-moving Arctic front during the weekend, with bitterly cold winds of up to 40mph (64km/h) creating widespread blizzard conditions.

The National Weather Service warned New Hampshire residents they could face "greater extremes" on Sunday than they experienced during Friday's blizzard.

Power remained cut to several thousand homes and businesses in New Hampshire after last week's storm.

The forecast said up to 11 inches of wet snow was likely, leading to more power cuts in the state.

The greater danger was the combination of high winds and temperatures falling well below zero.

In the midst of Friday's storm more than 200 flights were cancelled at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, and more than 650 at three New York City-area airports, with others facing long delays.

In Illinois about 60,000 customers lost power, with a further 35,000 in Ohio and 180,000 in Indiana.

Schools were closed across the north-east region.

In Las Vegas residents and tourists were shocked to see the rare site of palm trees along the Las Vegas strip covered in a thick coating of snow.

More than 3.5 inches (9cm) of snow fell across the city, its heaviest snowfall in nearly 30 years, cancelling flights and closing roads.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick asked non-essential state employees to stay home in a bid to prevent traffic jams on Friday, but New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged people to get out of their houses and go shopping.

In Seattle 11 people were hurt when two buses slid down an icy street, and broke through a guardrail above a motorway.

One dangled for several hours before being towed back from the brink.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

SEVERED CABLE DISRUPTS WEB ACCESS!

Subsea cables are often damaged by ships anchors and seismic activity

Internet and phone communications between Europe, the Middle East, and Asia have been seriously disrupted after submarine cables were severed.

It is thought the FLAG FEA, SMW4, and SMW3 lines, near the Alexandria cable station in Egypt, have all been cut.

A fault was also reported on the GO submarine cable 130km off Sicily.

Experts warned that it may be days before the fault is fixed and said the knock on effect could have serious repercussions on regional economies.

For this to happen twice in one year, on the same cable, is a serious cause for concern. Jonathan Wright, Interoute

Jonathan Wright - director of wholesale products at Interoute which manages part of the optical fibre network - told the BBC that the effects of the break would be felt for many days.

"This will grind economies to a halt for a short space of time," he said "If you look at, say, local financial markets who trade with European and US markets, the speed at which they get live data will be compromised."

"If you think how quickly trades can be placed, if they are suffering from bad latency times, then by the time a trade is placed, the market may well have moved on."

The cause of the break is as yet unknown, although some seismic activity was reported near Malta shortly before the cut was detected.

A second subsea cable to Malta is currently being laid

In a statement released in relation to one of the breaks, France Telecom said: "The causes of the cut, which is located in the Mediterranean between Sicily and Tunisia, on sections linking Sicily to Egypt, remain unclear."

The French firm said it was sending a ship out to fix the line between Italy and Egypt, although it could take until 31 December to fully repair the line.

The main damage through is to the four submarine cables running across the Mediterranean and through the Suez Canal.

It is thought that 65% of traffic to India was down, while services to Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Taiwan and Pakistan have also been severely affected.

Earlier this year, the same line was damaged in the same area - off the Egyptian coast - although only two lines were snapped then.

"We've lost three out of four lines. If the fourth cable breaks, we're looking at a total blackout in the Middle East," said Mr Wright.

"These three circuits account for 90% of the traffic and we're going to see more international phone calls dropping and a huge degradation in the quality of local internet," he added.

"Normally you would expect to see one major break per cable per year. With four you should have an insurance policy. For this to happen twice in one year, on the same cable, is a serious cause for concern."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

10 THINGS !

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

1. Sugar does not cause hyperactive behaviour.
More details

2. Oliver Twist was not hungry when he asked for more.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

3. Leonard Cohen's original Hallelujah has more than 80 verses.
More details

4. Sneezing can be a sign of sexual arousal.
More details

5. It's legal to serve legal papers by Facebook, in Australia.
More details

6. It's a bad idea to put out a chip pan fire with a wet tea towel.
More details

7. The world's oldest singer and actor is 105.
More details

8. Some villages in Wales still don't have mains electricity.
More details

9. Japan has its own version of the foot-measurement - called the kanejaku.
More details

10. The average global temperature is about 0.7C above pre-industrial times.
More details

BBC NEWS MAGAZINE.

DOLLAR IS KEY TO ZIMBABWE SURVIVAL!

By Karen Allen- BBC News, Zimbabwe.

Last week the reserve bank issued a new Zimbabwean banknote - a $500m bill. Its value changes by the day, but a rough estimate of its worth now is about US $50 (£33).

Its release was enough to see a surge of people flock onto the streets and form huge queues outside the banks. Harare's pavements were gridlocked for most of the day.

But increasingly it is only US dollars that are accepted in Zimbabwe's shops. Petrol stations are among those now turning away people who offer fistfuls of local currency.

Even water bills - for what little clean water there is - have to be paid in hard US cash. And bread is now a dollar commodity in many parts of the country.

'Dollarisation'

There has been a surge in cross-border trade in recent weeks with the lifting of restrictions on US dollar transactions.

Consumer goods, food and cars are being brought across from neighbouring South Africa.

To get (US) dollars I have to do assignments abroad… there are not many Zimbabweans who can do that Professor John Makombe, University of Zimbabwe

Supermarkets are now stuffed with food, filling shelves that just a month or so ago were empty.

These supermarkets are for Zimbabwe's tiny dollar elite - the type that drive brand new cars into the car parks as others try to fend off starvation. They only accept US dollar bills in these swanky shops.

John Makombe, professor of political science at the University of Zimbabwe, estimates that 80% of the population here has no access to US dollar bills.

"Even I sometimes don't have foreign currency and I'm a university professor. To get dollars I have to do assignments abroad," he says. "There are not many Zimbabweans who can do that."

The value of Professor Makumbe's monthly salary, he reveals, is equivalent to US $30. That is just a little more than the price of a jar of instant coffee in the supermarkets which have become a refuge of the dollar rich.

The "dollarisation" of the Zimbabwean financial system is propping up a collapsed Zimbabwean economy.

But it has created an unwieldy free market where the government, unable to control basic prices, is merely a bystander.

A shortage of change and small US banknotes is now creating a new US dollar inflation.

"Zimbabwe is like a house of cards… one puff and it could come down," says a Zimbabwe-based Western diplomat with a depressed tone. "The problem is… there isn't the puff to blow it down."

It seems to be an accurate observation. Massive food shortages, hyperinflation, cholera and continued political turmoil are a heady cocktail.

In any other country in the world, this combination might have triggered a coup. But not here. People are simply too scared.

Journalists, human rights activists and other critics of Robert Mugabe's presidency have recently vanished.

Many Zimbabweans do not have access to foreign currency

More than 20 people have disappeared in just the past few weeks - people are terrified.

Reporting the Zimbabwe story is risky for all concerned - not least those on the other side of the microphone.

Not surprisingly many are reluctant to speak out - yet thankfully, some still do. Like Elliot and Molly - a retired couple now living on a small farm, whose geographical details I dare not divulge for fear they are punished for speaking to me.

"Africa needs to be responsible for its own problems," says Elliot boldly. "It's about our own mismanagement… we can't blame former colonies like Britain."

It is a sentiment that runs deep here, though few will speak openly about it.

When I arrived tensions were high following the disappearance of Jestina Mukoko - a prominent human rights campaigner and former journalist, who had allegedly been abducted.

Her safety has been playing on the minds of so many here ever since. Yet Zimbabwe's neighbours continue to offer legitimacy to Robert Mugabe.

Despite a power-sharing deal back in September, he still holds all the cards. He is revered as a liberation hero by many influential figures on the continent, with just Botswana and Kenya breaking rank and speaking out.

One political campaigner for the opposition MDC described the present climate in Zimbabwe as "coerced control" - an environment where intimidation rules.

It means that ordinary Zimbabweans, already enduring so much, may still face the prospect of worse to come - resisting the instinct to revolt with a sense of fear.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

MUGABE INSISTS 'ZIMBABWE IS MINE' !

Robert Mugabe says African countries would not have the courage to intervene

President Robert Mugabe has said that "Zimbabwe is mine" and rejected calls from some African leaders to step down.

"I will never, never, never surrender," he told delegates of his ruling Zanu-PF party at its annual conference.

Mr Mugabe also said he had sent a letter to the country's main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, inviting him to be sworn in as prime minister.

Earlier, Mr Tsvangirai said he would pull out of power-sharing talks unless abductions of his supporters stopped.

Mr Tsvangirai said that if the 42 missing members of the Movement for Democratic Change were not released or charged by 1 January, he would ask for the suspension of all contact and negotiations.

The only persons with the power to remove Robert Gabriel Mugabe are the people of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe Dollar is key to Zimbabwe survival

He said the Zanu-PF was conducting a deliberate and targeted national terrorist campaign to undermine the MDC's support.

BBC Southern Africa correspondent Peter Biles says that this represents a significant shift in Mr Tsvangirai's position, as he had previously remained committed to the power-sharing talks despite a number of reservations.

Zimbabwe is currently gripped by economic collapse and a cholera epidemic. The UN on Thursday reported that the death toll from the disease had risen to 1,123 and that 20,896 people had been infected.

'Pack of lies'

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Friday that the antiquated methods being used to treat the epidemic could not bring hope to the suffering of the Zimbabwean people.

Mr Tsvangirai has threatened to withdraw from the power-sharing talks

US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer meanwhile said there was "a complete collapse right now" in Zimbabwe, and said Mr Mugabe needed to step down.

But in a defiant speech at the Zanu-PF's annual conference in Bindura, north-east of Harare, the president insisted "the only persons with the power to remove Robert Gabriel Mugabe are the people of Zimbabwe".

"I will never, never, never surrender. Zimbabwe is mine, I am a Zimbabwean. Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans," he said.

Mr Mugabe said international criticism of his government's handling of the cholera outbreak was "a pack of lies".

"I won't be intimidated. Even if I am threatened with beheading, I believe this and nothing will ever move me from it: Zimbabwe belongs to us, not the British," he added.

He also questioned whether any of his country's neighbours would "have the courage to order a military intervention".

"What would they come and do militarily here? All that they would come and really pose is a threat to our stability," he said.

"There would be an unnecessary war started in a foolish manner because of foolish persuasion coming from foolish sources."

WHERE AFRICA STANDS Critical of Robert Mugabe - Botswana's president has called for fresh elections - Kenya's PM wants African governments to oust Mr Mugabe - Senegal's president says Mr Mugabe should give up power - Zambia's late president called the region's silence over election violence "scandalous" Pro power-sharing - Southern African Development Community (Sadc) maintains power-sharing is the only solution - South Africa, the regional powerhouse, backs Sadc - The African Union says a unity cabinet is the only way forward - Nigeria's foreign minister says he shares "moral outrage" about Zimbabwe, but backs dialogue

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade became the latest in an increasing number of senior African politicians calling for Mr Mugabe to quit.

He told the French newspaper, La Croix, that he had supported Mr Mugabe in the past but was forming the view that the president was now the cause of his country's problems.

'No letters'

In his speech on Friday, the Zimbabwean leader said he had written to Mr Tsvangirai, inviting him to become prime minister as part of the inclusive power-sharing government, but expressed doubt whether he would accept.

"I have sent letters so that they can come and I can swear [in] and appoint them. We have not reached a stage where we can say with a degree of certainty that they want to be part of this," he said.

MDC officials later told the Reuters news agency that they had received no such letters from the president.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

JUST WHO HALLELUJAH IS IT ANYWAY?

SMASHED HITS Classic pop, reappraised by the Magazine

Rooftop bathing. S&M. Gunfights. A haircut. What is going on in this year's likely Christmas Number One - and possible Number Two?

Two versions of Hallelujah are headed for the top of the Christmas charts. But there is a version of Hallelujah for everyone.

For the pre-pubescent fan of animated ogres, there's the one in Shrek that plays as the titular monster feels ugly. For the teen soap devotee, there's the sensitive acoustic montage music for profound moments in shows like The OC.

NOTABLE VERSIONS John Cale (stately) Bon Jovi (soft rock) Bono (spoken word) Imogen Heap (a capella) Fall Out Boy (emo) Quiz: Know your Hallelujahs?

For the baby boomer ex-beatnik, its writer Leonard Cohen offers two renditions with almost completely different lyrics.

And now, for everyone - indeed, for Christmas - there's the X Factor victory single.

But exactly how Christmassy is this song, with lines like "your faith was strong but you needed proof", where the singer is "not somebody who's seen the light"?

Well, while there's not a lot of "behold the Baby Jesus" and not a donkey in sight, there's certainly a lot of Bible in there - it's just that it's some of the raunchier and more violent episodes from the Christmas-free Old Testament.

Evil spirit

We kick off in the Book of Samuel with David who is, as well as a nifty fighter, a mean harpist. His "secret chord" that "pleased the Lord" is enough to release an evil spirit from Saul, the man he is shortly to succeed as king.

David is said to have scoped out Bathsheba having a bath on the roof

That done, David spies the beautiful Bathsheba "bathing on the roof" and gets her pregnant. Little good comes of this - Bathsheba's husband Uriah is one of David's soldiers and winds up dead.

Then before you know it, we skip to the Book of Judges and David has become Samson. When we hear the line "she broke your throne and she cut your hair", we all know what happened next - although Hallelujah doesn't depict the part where Samson, his eyes gouged, pulls down a temple killing himself and around 3,000 guests for good measure.

In X Factor winner Alexandra Burke's version, we only have one more verse to go.

COHEN ON COHEN

In it, she tells us that "all I've ever learned from love is how to shoot at someone who outdrew you" and closes by announcing, as if any doubt were now needed, that the chorus is "a cold and a broken Hallelujah". Ho, ho, ho.

Singalong chorus

There's something odd here. The key shifts up. The strings crescendo. The gospel singers - who, incongruously, entered the stage of the X Factor final on the word "maybe" of "maybe there's a god above" - raise the volume even higher.

Far from cold and broken, the final chorus is more like Handel's original Hallelujah Chorus mashed up with Cher's I Found Someone.

Devotees of Hallelujah - and there are many - might wonder why Burke's people didn't choose some of the 80 other available verses.

Cohen's own ends on a far more upbeat note, lyrically, with a vow to "stand before the Lord of Song with nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah". At the very least, this fits a festive feel better than the S&M of "she tied you to a kitchen chair".

I filled two notebooks and I remember being in the Royalton Hotel, on the carpet in my underwear, banging my head on the floor and saying, 'I can't finish this song' Leonard Cohen

If 80 verses seem excessive, that's because Leonard Cohen belongs to the old school of proper, serious, tortured songwriters.

His versions - one Biblical and another secular - take us through a huge range of emotional places, with the different hallelujahs expressing despair, sexual ecstasy and religious devotion.

As the Bishop of Croydon put it in a recent Radio 2 documentary, "what it comes from is being open and transparent before God and the world and saying 'this is how it is, mate'".

It's not immediately clear which of these we get in Alexandra Burke's single. Lyrically, it's about being crushed by irresistible passion. But the video makes it about the "journey" of winning a TV talent show, meaning all that's Christmassy about it is the pretty tune and the singalong chorus.

Angry fans

Fans of Leonard Cohen (and of the late Jeff Buckley, whose 1994 version is treated as sacrosanct) are predictably outraged at the big-arms, eyebrow-raised bombast, with the now traditional online campaigns and rival singles vying for the Christmas Number One.

But maybe they need not worry so much. For one thing, viewings of the other Hallelujahs on the global jukebox YouTube are rising every day, with comments underneath such as "Glad the song won X Factor - even with a rubbish version - otherwise I wouldn't have discovered this".

And for another, Cohen was last in the news when a court ruled that his manager had stolen £5.4m which he was unlikely to recover. So there may be another kind of joyous cry this Christmas - the kind that means "a beautiful woman has sung my song and restored my financial solvency". Hallelujah.

Smashed Hits is compiled by Alan Connor.
BBC MAGAZINE REPORT.

MAN'S DEBT REPAID !

Mr Webb said he would give the £200 to charity

A Sheffield man who lent a penniless Australian tourist £5 to pay for a ferry trip in 1969 has been repaid his debt nearly 40 years later.

While Jim Webb was out, a card and £200 was hand delivered to his home by Gary Fenton, to repay the money he borrowed when they met in Ostend, Belgium.

A note inside read: "To Jim Webb, a good man. From Gary Fenton, a tardy payer of debts."

Mr Webb, 72, has appealed for Mr Fenton to get back in touch.

Mr Webb and a friend were travelling around Europe in April 1969 when they met the Australian traveller, then in his early 20s, at a ferry port in Ostend.

He said: "A young man came up to us and said he hadn't got enough money to get back to England and would we lend him £5 and he'd repay us as soon as he could afford it."

The three men travelled back to England and when they parted Mr Fenton took Mr Webb's address, but he never heard from him.

In this day and age promises are made and promises are broken and you lose your faith in human nature Jim Webb

Then on Sunday, he returned to his home in Bradway to find the surprise card.

Mr Webb said: "I was quite emotional when I read it. In this day and age promises are made and promises are broken and you lose your faith in human nature.

"This was a lovely gesture. Forty years is a long time - it must have been preying on his mind that he hadn't repaid his debt.

"He said he was giving me £200 as that was £5 for every year that had gone by."

Mr Webb said the card explained how Mr Fenton, who now lived in Sydney, had come across his address while looking through some old papers.

His note said he had decided to pay him a visit and repay his debt while on a trip to London.

Mr Webb, who is giving the £200 to charity, said: "He didn't leave an address or telephone number, just an email address which I have tried but so far I haven't heard back.

"I am very sorry I was not in on Sunday... he would have been very welcome here. Hopefully we will be able to make contact, it would be wonderful to meet up again."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

BABY BORN WITH 'FOOT IN BRAIN' !

Sam Esquibel is recovering from surgery

US surgeons operating on a brain tumour in a baby boy found a tiny foot inside his head.

Doctors operated on three-day old Sam Esquibel after finding what looked like a microscopic tumour on an MRI scan.

But while removing the growth, they also found a nearly perfect foot and the partial formation of another foot, a hand and a thigh.

The growth may have been a case of "foetus in foetu" in which a twin begins to form within its sibling.

However, the team at Memorial Hospital for Children in Colorado Springs said such cases very rarely occur in the brain.

You'd never know if he didn't have a scar there Tiffnie Esquibel

It may also have been a type of congenital brain tumour.

But such growths are usually less complex than a foot or hand, the doctors added.

Unique

Dr Paul Grabb, a paediatric neurosurgeon, said Sam was otherwise healthy when he underwent the procedure in October.

"It looked like the breech delivery of a baby, coming out of the brain," he said.

"To find a perfectly formed structure (like this) is extremely unique, unusual, borderline unheard of."

Sam's parents, Tiffnie and Manuel Esquibel, say their son is at home now but faces monthly blood tests to check for signs of cancer or regrowth, along with physical therapy to improve the use of his neck.

But they say he has mostly recovered from the operation.

"You'd never know if he didn't have a scar there," his mother said.

Trevor Lawson, of the charity Brain Tumour UK, said: "Even with modern imaging techniques, surgeons can't be entirely sure of what they'll find when they go into the skull.

"Even so, this is an exceptionally rare event.

"It's good to know that baby Sam is recovering well. Brain tumours now kill more children than any other solid cancer and it's essential that more research is undertaken to identify what causes them.

"Where appropriate consent is gained, rare events like these can sometimes provide invaluable genetic material that gives an insight into the origins of these traumatic tumours."
BBC NEWS REPORT.

TERROR DIRECTOR BRITON GIVEN LIFE!

The defendants had denied the charges against them

A British man who became the first al-Qaeda suspect convicted in the UK of directing terrorism has been sentenced to life in jail.

Rangzieb Ahmed, 33, was found guilty of the offence on Thursday following a trial at Manchester Crown Court.

The judge described him as an "extremely dangerous man".

Ahmed was also found guilty of being a member of terror group al-Qaeda, along with Habib Ahmed, who was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.

Habib, 29, was given nine years for being a member of the terror group and an additional year for possessing a document for terror-related purposes.

You [Rangzieb] are an intelligent, capable and superficially reasonable man who is involved in terrorism Mr Justice Saunders Briton guilty of directing terror Briton 'linked to core al-Qaeda'

The taxi driver had been caught with two diaries containing details of top al-Qaeda operatives, described in court as a terrorist's contact book.

Among the names and phone numbers in the diaries, which contained some writing in invisible ink, was a former al-Qaeda top man Hamza Rabia, the court was told.

Both men, who are not related, are from Manchester.

Recruiter and organiser

The prosecution said Rochdale-born Rangzieb had been part of a three-man active service cell on an unknown foreign mission.

Handing him a life sentence, Mr Justice Saunders said: "The prosecution case accepted by the jury was you were not one of the leaders but a recruiter and organiser of smaller terrorist cells throughout the world to work for al-Qaeda.

"I am satisfied you are dedicated to the cause of Islamic terrorism. You are an intelligent, capable and superficially reasonable man who is involved in terrorism.

"That makes you an extremely dangerous man."

He said he must serve a minimum of 10 years but would not be released until he was considered not to be a threat to the public.

Terror assistant

Rangzieb had travelled to Dubai from Pakistan via China en route to South Africa in December 2005 as part of a "major activity," the court heard.

It was said this was abandoned when his boss, Hamza Rabia, was killed in an explosion the same month.

Without them [the diaries] Rangzieb Ahmed would not have been able to carry on organising terrorism Mr Justice Saunders

Mr Justice Saunders told Habib he had "assisted" Rangzieb, whom he knew to be an "active terrorist working for al-Qaeda".

"You joined up with him," he said. "You assisted him by travelling to Dubai when he was on a terrorist mission and you brought the notebooks into this country.

"Those notebooks were extremely important. They may not have contained the details of how to make bombs but they were in my view just as important to al-Qaeda."

"Without them Rangzieb Ahmed would not have been able to carry on organising terrorism."

A member of the public gallery shouted, "Jannah (paradise) is yours" as Habib was led to the cells, while another said, "He is innocent".

The two men were trapped by a complex police and security force operation, and Rangzieb was eventually arrested in Pakistan in August 2006.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

MUGABE RIDICULES AFRICAN BRAVERY !

Mr Mugabe has claimed there is an international plot to invade Zimbabwe

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has said African leaders are not brave enough to force him from power, the state-run Herald newspaper reports.

He told a meeting of his Zanu-PF party that the US was encouraging African countries to oust him, but said it would not be easy to send in an army.

Mr Mugabe also said he would soon meet his political rivals to try to break the deadlock over a unity government.

But the opposition MDC says abductions of its members threatens the talks.

"More than 42 members have been abducted," Morgan Tsvangirai, Movement for Democratic Change leader, said in Botswana.

How could African leaders ever topple Robert Mugabe, organise an army to come? It is not easy Robert Mugabe

"If these abductions do not cease immediately and if all abductees are not released or charged in a court of law by 1 January 2009, I will be asking the MDC's national council to pass a resolution to suspend all negotiations and contact with Zanu-PF."

Zimbabwe is gripped by economic collapse and a cholera epidemic. The United Nations on Thursday reported that the death toll from the disease had risen to 1,123 and 20,896 people had been infected.

'Terror campaign'

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade is the latest in an increasing number of senior African politicians calling for Mr Mugabe to quit.

WHERE AFRICA STANDS Critical of Robert Mugabe - Botswana's president has called for fresh elections - Kenya's PM wants African governments to oust Mr Mugabe - Senegal's president says Mr Mugabe should give up power - Zambia's late president called the region's silence over election violence "scandalous" Pro power-sharing - Southern African Development Community (Sadc) maintains power-sharing is the only solution - South Africa, the regional powerhouse, backs Sadc - The African Union says a unity cabinet is the only way forward - Nigeria's foreign minister says he shares "moral outrage" about Zimbabwe, but backs dialogue

He told the French newspaper La Croix that he had supported Mr Mugabe in the past but was forming the view that the Zimbabwean president was now the cause of his country's problems.

In an address to his party's central committee, Mr Mugabe referred to recent comments by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calling for southern African leaders to pressure the Zimbabwean leadership to resolve the country's political deadlock.

He said she "condemned" African leaders for not being prepared to topple him and bring about regime change.

"How could African leaders ever topple Robert Mugabe, organise an army to come? It is not easy," he said, according to the Herald.

"I do not know of any African country that is brave enough to do that."

He also told the committee, ahead of Zanu-PF's annual conference which starts on Friday, that he would soon meet the main opposition leaders to resolve a power-sharing agreement that has been deadlocked since September.

But those talks looked to be in doubt after Mr Tsvangirai accused Zanu-PF of conducting a deliberate and targeted national terror campaign to undermine the MDC's support.

He said Robert Mugabe's regime repeatedly broken the spirit of the September power-sharing agreement.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

IDOL 'REMAINS SAME' DESPITE DEATH !

Cowell and his fellow judges are due to begin an eighth series of American Idol

American Idol's judges will keep criticising contestants despite the apparent suicide of a former participant, Simon Cowell has said.

The death of Paula Goodspeed, who was mocked when she appeared on the reality show, "hit us like an express train", he said, and had upset him "a lot".

"What happened was awful," he told reporters. "My regret is that we didn't know how troubled this person was."

But after thinking "long and hard" he decided not to alter the show's format.

And those who auditioned for the programme understood they faced blunt assessments from the judges, Cowell said.

"We have tried to have a sense of humour. The show is not an inherently mean show.

"It is an 'American dream' show where the whole purpose is to find somebody who, through the process, becomes a star," he addedIDOL

The panel laughed at Ms Goodspeed, 30, when she had an audition in 2005.

She had braces on her teeth and the judges asked how she could sing while her mouth had "that much metal".

She took an overdose last month and her body was found in a car outside the Los Angeles home of judge Paula Abdul.

Ms Goodspeed's death sparked a debate over the judges' harsh remarks

"If I had gone back in time and known what she was going through, I wish we could have spent time trying to help her, but we genuinely didn't know," Cowell told reporters in a telephone conference call.

Such a shocking event "does make you take a step back", he added.

But he considered it important to stress to "bad" singers that they had no hope of succeeding in the music industry.

Abdul has claimed she warned producers not to let Ms Goodspeed audition for the show but her fears were dismissed for the sake of making an entertaining programme.

But Cowell insisted the show's producers had "the utmost integrity as human beings".

American Idol's eighth series will be shown on US television network Fox from 13 January. It is broadcast by ITV2 in the UK.
BBC NEWS REPORT.

MADOFF UNDER CURFEW !

Madoff under curfew on $10m bail

Mr Madoff did not respond to reporters' questions
Bernard Madoff, the hedge fund boss accused of a $50bn (£32bn) fraud, has put up $10m bail and in effect been placed under house arrest.
Mr Madoff turned up at New York's federal court to sign some papers but did not answer reporters' questions.
He signed over his New York flat and his homes in Long Island and Palm Beach, Florida to make up the bail.
He will also be fitted with an electronic tag and will have to seek permission to leave his flat.
In addition to surrendering his own passport, Mr Madoff has also agreed to hand in that of his wife Ruth.
The bail conditions were tightened after Mr Madoff failed to find the required four people to co-sign his bail agreement.
If the correct documents are supplied, Mr Madoff will not have to make another court appearance until 12 January.
Attorney withdraws
Also on Wednesday, US Attorney General Michael Mukasey removed himself from the investigation.
It was announced by the Justice Department, which declined to discuss the reasons for the decision.
Mr Mukasey's son, Marc, has said that he represents a senior official at Mr Madoff's firm, Frank DiPascali.
"I represent Mr DiPascali, for the record, we are trying to sift through the facts like everybody else," he said.
The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission - the top US financial regulator - has said there was no evidence that the staff had acted wrongly in failing to pursue suggestions that Mr Madoff was engaged in fraudulent activity.
"I want to emphasize that there is no evidence that anyone is aware of at this point that any personnel did anything wrong," Christopher Cox said.
'Veil of secrecy'
Meanwhile, Harvey Pitt, a former SEC chairman said it would not be enough to impose greater regulation on hedge funds for its own sake.
"What is really critical is that the veil of secrecy that covers a lot of these hedge funds be removed," he told the BBC's World Tonight programme.
He added that there has to be, "an effort to understand what effect they are having in the marketplace, what their conduct and activities are like, and whether they raise significant issues for the regulators".
In response to questions about how regulators should realise when fraud is happening, he said it is not always as obvious as it seems with hindsight.
"People intent on defrauding others have a very high likelihood that they won't get caught for a fairly long period of time," Mr Pitt said.
BBC NEWS REPORT

"SAYINGS"

"NOTHING WILL CONTENT HIM

WHO IS NOT CONTENT WITH A

LITTLE" !

Zimbabwe neighbours' aid campaign

There are fears the rainy season will increase the cases of cholera

Southern African countries are launching an urgent campaign to help Zimbabwe fight cholera and overcome its acute food shortage.

The plan was announced by President Kgalema Motlanthe of South Africa after a meeting in Pretoria of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc).

President Motlanthe also said he hoped a unity government would be formed in Zimbabwe in the coming days.

But Zimbabwe's opposition said it did not know what he was talking about.

After disputed presidential elections in March and June, President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) agreed to form a power-sharing government.

But implementation of that deal, reached in September, has been deadlocked over whose supporters would get the key ministries.

Meanwhile, 18,000 Zimbabweans have been infected with cholera and nearly 1,000 have died from the disease. Aid agencies warn cases will surge with heavy rains.

President Motlanthe said on Wednesday the Sadc appeal was being launched "for the people of Zimbabwe in order to help them overcome the challenges facing their country".

All 15 members of the regional body were expected to contribute to the aid effort, he added.

Correspondents say the Sadc campaign is firstly an international appeal to mobilise funds and resources for Zimbabwe's people.

It will also seek to address donors' concerns about food distribution being used by Mr Mugabe's government as a political tool.

The campaign was launched as Australia added its voice to growing calls for Mr Mugabe to stand down and tightened sanctions against his government.

Canberra added 75 individuals and four firms in Zimbabwe to a blacklist of financial and visa restrictions.

Months of power-sharing talks have not broken the deadlock

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the measures were "a clear signal the Australian government holds the brutal Mugabe regime and its closest supporters accountable for the tragedy occurring in Zimbabwe".

African countries like Botswana and Kenya have also urged Mr Mugabe to quit.

But in South Africa's capital, President Motlanthe told journalists he would not join calls for Mr Mugabe to step down.

He said: "The issue of whether President Mugabe should go or not was never been raised by the parties. So, it's really not for us - I mean, I don't know whether the British feel qualified to impose that on the people of Zimbabwe."

President Motlanthe said he hoped a constitutional amendment paving the way for power-sharing - with Mr Mugabe remaining president and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai becoming prime minster - would become law this week.

"We are hopeful that such an inclusive government will be put in place this week," he said.

But Zimbabwe's opposition said it knew nothing about any such breakthrough."We are not aware of any plans to form a government this week. It's certainly news to us because the outstanding issues we have outlined remain," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told Reuters new agency.

The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Pretoria says the prospect of power-sharing still seems remote - in the week when Zimbabwe's government accused Botswana of hosting military training camps for MDC insurgents.

Meanwhile Nigeria's Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe told the BBC's HardTalk programme that while Nigeria shared the "moral outrage" about Zimbabwe, the best way to move forward was the power-sharing talks.

Earlier, the UK think tank International Crisis Group suggested that both Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai should step aside to end the "hopelessly deadlocked" talks.

This could allow a transitional administration to implement political and economic reforms, it said.

But BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says it is unlikely either side would take up such an idea.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

'ANCIENT CITY' UNEARTHED IN PERU !

The ruins of an entire city have been discovered in northern Peru, researchers say.
Archaeologists say the find could provide the missing link between the ancient cultures of the Wari people and the earlier Moche civilisation.
The site, near the Pacific coastal city of Chiclayo, probably dates to the Wari culture which ruled the Andes of modern Peru between the 7th and 12th Century.
The once buried city showed evidence of human sacrifice.
The remains of the victims were thrown over the nearby cliff, Cesar Soriano, the chief archaeologist on the project, told the Andina news agency.
Ceramics, clothing, and the well-preserved remains of a young woman were also discovered, he said.
"It provides the missing link because it explains how the Wari people allowed for the continuation of culture after the Moche [died out about 600 AD]," Cesar Soriano was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Mr Soriano said the find provides the first evidence of Wari culture, which was based in the south of the country, at the northern site.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZIMBABWE GOVERNMENT 'THIS WEEK' !

South Africa's leader has said he believes the deadlock over Zimbabwe's power-sharing deal has been resolved.
"We are hopeful that such an inclusive government will be put in place this week," Kgalema Motlanthe said.
He added that the regional body, Sadc, was launching an urgent aid appeal to deal with Zimbabwe's cholera crisis.
More than 18,000 people have developed the disease and aid agencies are warning that with heavy rains further infections are set to rise.
After disputed presidential elections in March, President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) agreed to form a power-sharing government.
But implementation of that agreement, reached in September, has been dogged by disagreements over whose supporters would get key ministries.
Months of negotiations brokered by former South African President Thabo Mbeki on behalf of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) have failed to break the deadlock.
Earlier, the UK think tank International Crisis Group suggested that both Mr Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai should step aside to end the "hopelessly deadlocked" talks.
This could allow a transitional administration to implement political and economic reforms, it said.
The proposal would also give the president and his generals immunity from prosecution.
But BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says it is unlikely either side would take up such an idea.
President Motlanthe told journalists in South Africa's capital, Pretoria, that he would not join calls for Mr Mugabe to step down.

African countries like Botswana and Kenya have called for Mr Mugabe to go to end the political turmoil.
But the South African leader said the power-sharing deal was about to be implemented, which would see Mr Mugabe stay on as president and Mr Tsvangirai become prime minster.
However, the MDC told Reuters news agency it knew nothing about any imminent breakthrough.
"Maybe the president knows something we don't know, but we are not aware of any plans to form a government this week. It's certainly news to us because the outstanding issues we have outlined remain," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.
President Motlanthe said the Sadc appeal was being launched "for the people of Zimbabwe in order to help them overcome the challenges facing their country".
The BBC's Karen Allen, who recently travelled to Zimbabwe, says nine out of the country's 10 provinces have reported cases of cholera.
The epidemic has so far claimed nearly 1,000 lives, but the official figure of infections could be just the tip of the iceberg, she says.
In Mashonaland - where Mr Mugabe's party commands some support, she found patients with the disease housed in makeshift clinics.
Drugs were in short supply, clean water was scarce and many young children had succumbed to the disease - dying of dehydration in just a matter of days.
Our reporter says cholera is a potent symbol of Zimbabwe's steady collapse.
Piles of burning rubbish in the streets of the capital, Harare, and burst pipes spewing filthy water are now a common sight here, she says.
Last week, Mr Mugabe maintained his country had contained the cholera outbreak.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

GAMBLING TYCOON TO FORFEIT $300m

The billionaire co-founder of an internet gambling company has pleaded guilty to violating US internet laws and agreed to forfeit $300m (£192m).
Anurag Dikshit, co-founder of the UK-listed company PartyGaming, entered the plea in a New York federal court.
He is charged with violating federal gambling laws, an offence which could incur a prison term of up to two years.
Mr Dikshit, an Indian national with an estimated fortune of $1.6bn, declined to comment to reporters.
The US justice department said Mr Dikshit, 37, had pleaded guilty to one count of "using the wires to transmit bets and wagering information".
US gambling law reforms in 2006 effectively made it illegal for PartyGaming to trade there.
Correspondents say Mr Dikshit, who still holds a major stake in the company, is unlikely to serve any jail time because of a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Mr Dikshit, who was released on a $15m bail pending sentencing next December, has already paid $100m.

BBC NEWS REPORT

CHINA 'BANS BBC CHINESE WEBSITE'!

China appears to have banned a number of foreign websites, including the BBC's Chinese language news site and Voice of America in Chinese.
The sites had been unblocked after journalists attending the Beijing Olympics complained that the government was censoring sites deemed sensitive.
The BBC expressed disappointment at the apparent reinstatement of the ban.
But a Chinese government spokesman told journalists that some sites contained content that violated Chinese law.
Among the other sites blocked are Asiaweek, Reporters Without Borders and some Hong Kong and Taiwan sites.
China imposes strict controls on the dissemination of information through the web, employing teams of people to remove sensitive content, police bloggers and remove access to certain sites.
In a news conference, foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao refused to confirm that the government was behind the censorship.
But he said some websites violated Chinese law.
It has been a source of great regret that audiences in China are unable to access BBCChinese.com as the rest of the world can
The BBC"For instance, if a website refers to 'two Chinas' or refers to mainland China and Taiwan as two independent regions, we believe that violates China's anti-secession law, as well as other laws," he said, according to Reuters news agency.
He urged the websites to "comply with China's concerns and not do things contrary to Chinese law".
Mr Liu would not comment on why websites had been temporarily unblocked during the Olympic Games, or comment on the legal process followed to approve the blocking of sites.
In a statement, the BBC said it was disappointed that Chinese-speaking audiences in China were denied access to BBCChinese.com.
It said that except during the 2008 Games, the website had been blocked since its inception nearly a decade ago, and Mandarin radio broadcasts had been "subject to persistent frequency interference for decades".
"It has been a source of great regret that audiences in China are unable to access BBCChinese.com as the rest of the world can," the statement said.
Just before the Olympics, foreign journalists complained that they could not access a host of websites which carried news or comment that Beijing deemed sensitive.

The spread of information is tightly controlled in China. The Olympics led to an improvement in China's controls of the foreign media, and not all the advances have been rolled back, reports the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Beijing.
But the country is expected to face a tough year ahead - the dramatic slowing of economic growth and rising unemployment are expected to fuel social unrest, he says.
It is also the 20th anniversary of the brutal suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests, and 50 years since China took direct control of Tibet.
More censorship and increased internal security are expected in 2009, our correspondent adds.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

SHOE THROWER 'BEATEN IN CUSTODY'!

The brother of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush has said that the reporter has been beaten in custody.
Muntadar al-Zaidi has allegedly suffered a broken arm, broken ribs and internal bleeding, his older brother, Dargham, told the BBC.
Mr Zaidi threw his shoes at Mr Bush at a news conference, calling him "a dog".
A spokesperson for the Iraqi military says the journalist is in good health and said the allegations were untrue.
It is unclear whether the reporter may have been injured when he was wrestled to the floor at the news conference, or at a later point.
The head of Iraq's journalists' union has asked the government for clemency towards the journalist who is still in custody.
A spokesman for Iraq's High Judicial Council said that Mr Zaidi, accompanied by defence and prosecution lawyers, had been brought before the investigating judge, Reuters news agency reported.
Abdul Satar Birqadr said Mr Zaidi had been charged with aggression against a president.
"He admits the action he carried out," the news agency quoted Mr Birqadr as saying.
Earlier, Dargham al-Zaidi told the BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Baghdad he believed his brother had been taken to a US military hospital in the Iraqi capital.

A second day of rallies in support of Mr Zaidi were held across Iraq, calling for his release.
Meanwhile, offers to buy the shoes he threw are being made around the Arab world, reports say.
Mr Zaidi told our correspondent that despite offers from many lawyers his brother has not been given access to a legal representative since being arrested by forces under the command of Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser.

Mid East press glee at incident
Bush shoe-ing worst Arab insult

The Iraqi authorities have said the 28-year-old will be prosecuted under Iraqi law.
Iraqi lawyers had earlier speculated that the charges could include insulting a foreign leader and the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri Maliki, who was standing next to President Bush during the incident.
The offence carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail.
Our correspondent says that the previously little-known journalist from the private Cairo-based al-Baghdadia TV has become a hero to many, not just in Iraq but across the Arab world, for what many saw as a fitting send-off for a deeply unpopular US president.
As he flung the shoes, Mr Zaidi shouted: "This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog."
Dargham al-Zaidi told the BBC that his brother deliberately bought Iraqi-made shoes, which were dark brown with laces. They were bought from a shop on al-Khyam street, a well-known shopping street in central Baghdad.
However, not everyone in Iraq has been supportive of the journalist's action.
Speaking earlier in Baghdad, Mouyyad al-Lami described Mr Zaidi's action as "strange and unprofessional", but urged Mr Maliki to show compassion.
"Even if he has made a mistake, the government and the judiciary are broad-minded and we hope they consider his release because he has a family and he is still young," he told the Associated Press news agency.
"We hope this case ends before going to court."

The shoes themselves are said to have attracted bids from around the Arab world.
According to unconfirmed newspaper reports, the former coach of the Iraqi national football team, Adnan Hamad, has offered $100,000 (£65,000) for the shoes, while a Saudi citizen has apparently offered $10m (£6.5m).

The daughter of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Aicha, said her charity would honour the reporter with a medal of courage, saying his action was a "victory for human rights".
The charity called on the media to support Mr Zaidi and put pressure on the Iraqi government to free him.
Mr Zaidi, who lives in Baghdad, has worked for al-Baghdadia for three years.
Muzhir al-Khafaji, programming director for the channel, described him as a "proud Arab and an open-minded man".
He said that Mr Zaidi was a graduate of communications from Baghdad University.
"He has no ties with the former regime. His family was arrested under Saddam's regime," he said.
Mr Zaidi has previously been abducted by insurgents and held twice for questioning by US forces in Iraq.
In November 2007 he was kidnapped by a gang on his way to work in central Baghdad and released three days later without a ransom.
He said at the time that the kidnappers had beaten him until he lost consciousness, and used his necktie to blindfold him.
Mr Zaidi never learned the identity of his kidnappers, who questioned him about his work before letting him go.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ZIMBABWE'S AIR FORCE CHIEF 'SHOT'

The commander of Zimbabwe's air force has been wounded in what officials are calling an assassination attempt.
Perence Shiri, 53, a close ally of President Mugabe seen as one of the most feared military leaders, was shot in the arm and is said to be stable.
The opposition says he was one of the masterminds of violence against its supporters during this year's election.
The incident comes as pressure grows on Zimbabwe to allow international mediation in its political crisis.
The crisis is compounded by a cholera epidemic which has left hundreds dead.
On Monday, at the UN Security Council's first discussions on Zimbabwe since July, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said the world was witnessing a failure of the leadership in Zimbabwe to address the crisis.
After disputed presidential elections in March, Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change agreed to form a power-sharing government.
But implementation of that agreement, reached in September, has been dogged by disagreements over whose supporters would get key ministries.
Correspondents say this is the first time such a senior government figure has been the target of a violent attack for many years.

Perence Shiri
Accused of masterminding attacks on opposition in 2008
Member of Joint Operations Command - top military body
Accused of leading farm invasions in 2000
Led brutal campaign against "dissidents" in 1980s, which left 20,000 dead
Called himself 'Black Jesus' - as he had the power of life or death
Cousin of Robert Mugabe
On sanctions list of US, EU
Age: 53

Key role for Mugabe's security chiefs
Q&A: Zimbabwe crisis

"This is a very, very unusual incident, because Zimbabwe does not have a history of assassinations," the assistant editor of the state-run Herald newspaper, Caesar Zaye, told the BBC World Service's World Today programme.
Air Marshal Shiri was ambushed on Saturday evening while driving to his farm, state media said.
Police said he was accosted by unknown people who shot at his car.
When he heard the gunshots, he got out thinking it was a puncture and was shot.
Officials said the incident was one of a series of attacks aimed at destabilising the country.
"The attack on Air Marshal Shiri appears to be a build-up of terror attacks targeting high-profile persons, government officials, government establishments and public transportation systems," the Chronicle newspaper quoted Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi as saying.
Mr Zaye said the incident was "an attempt to bring a security angle into the crisis".
However, other sources suggest the cause was either a feud within the ruling Zanu-PF party or an attempted robbery.
On Monday, Zimbabwe's government said it had "compelling evidence" that neighbouring Botswana was hosting military training camps for opposition groups intent on bringing about regime change.
Botswana denied the charges, and said Harare had failed to provide any tangible evidence to back up its allegations.
Air Marshal Shiri, who is also Mr Mugabe's cousin, sits on the joint operations command which advises the president.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change said the JOC was behind the violent attacks on its supporters ahead of June' presidential run-off - allegations the military strongly denied.
Air Marshal Shiri was commander of the Fifth Brigade, blamed for the killing of 20,000 people in Matabeleland during the 1980s.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

MOSCOW RACIST MURDER GANG JAILED!

A group of racist skinheads who carried out 18 brutal murders in Russia's capital Moscow have been sentenced to jail terms of between six and 20 years.
The gang of seven targeted non-Slavic migrants in the city between August 2006 and October 2007.
Many of the attackers were minors at the time. Besides killing 18 people, they also tried to murder another 12, the court heard.
The group posted video of some of their crimes on the internet.
The heaviest jail term was handed to Roman Kuzin, who received 20 years in jail.
Artur Ryno and his gang are the extreme, dangerous face of generation who have grown up in an ideological vacuum

James Rodgers' Moscow diary

The two alleged ringleaders of the group, Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky, were given 10-year sentences in a penal colony.
Their sentences were the longest they could have received, as they were minors at the time.
Four other members of the group received jail sentences of between six and 12 years.
The prosecution argued that the defendants had formed an organised group with the aim of murdering migrants from Asian and Caucasian regions of the former Soviet Union.
In other words, they targeted people who did not look white, or Slavic, the BBC's James Rodgers in Moscow said.
Even in a city frequently the scene of racist violence, this gang's crimes stood out, our correspondent said.
Russia has been plagued by a series of racially motivated attacks, some of them fatal, in recent years.
Between January and October this year 113 people were killed in racist attacks in Russia and 340 were wounded, according to the Moscow Human Rights Bureau.

BBC NEWS REPORT

BANKS HIT WORLDWIDE BY US FRAUD!

Some of the world's biggest banks have revealed they are victims of an alleged fraud which has lost $50bn (£33bn).
Bernard Madoff, who was arrested on Thursday, has been charged with fraud in what is being described as one of the biggest-ever such cases.
Among the banks that have been hit are Britain's HSBC and RBS, Spain's Santander and France's BNP Paribas.
Other victims include film director Stephen Spielberg's Wunderkinder Foundation charity.
One of the City's best-known fund managers has criticised US regulators for not detecting the alleged fraud.

Nicola Horlick, boss of Bramdean investments, told the BBC: "I think now it is very difficult for people to invest in things that are meant to be regulated in America, because they have fallen down on the job."
"This is the biggest financial scandal, probably in the history of the markets - $50bn is a huge amount of money," she said.
Banks and financial institutions across the world had investments with Bernard Madoff, but not all have yet confirmed what their potential losses might be.
Among the potential losers is Spain's largest bank, Santander, which owns the UK High Street banks Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley.
The bank had a direct exposure of 17m euros ($23m; £15m), but clients of its Optimal fund management unit have another 2.3bn euros invested in the firm run by Bernard Madoff
Britain's HSBC said it had investments of about $1bn, which could be affected.

WHAT IS A PONZI SCHEME?
A fraudulent investment scheme paying investors from money paid in by other investors rather than real profits
Named after Charles Ponzi who notoriously used the technique in the United States in 1903
Differs from pyramid selling in that individuals all tend to invest with the same person

Madoff millions vanish

Royal Bank of Scotland said it could potentially lose about £400m ($601m) if all its investments had to be written off.
The French bank, Natixis, a subsidiary of Caisse d'Epargne and Banque Populaire, said it could potentially lose up to 450m euros (£402m; $605m).
One of the world's biggest investment groups, Man, said it had invested about $360m through its RMF institutional fund of funds business, representing 0.5% of its total funds.
Banking shares fell around the world, with Royal Bank of Scotland dropping 3.7%, HSBC losing 1.2% and banks making up the top four losers on New York's Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Meanwhile, some of the biggest private losers seem to have been members of the Palm Beach country club, where many of Mr Madoff's wealthy clients were recruited.
According to some reports, the list of prominent victims include a New Jersey Senator, the owners of the New York Mets and the charities run by film director Stephen Spielberg and
Nobel Prize winning writer Elie Wiesel.

MAJOR POTENTIAL LOSSES
Clients of Santander, Spain - $3.1bn
HSBC, UK - $1bn
Natixis, France - $605m
Royal Bank of Scotland, UK - $601m
BNP Paribas, France - $460m
BBVA, Spain - $400m
Man Group, UK - $360m
Reichmuth & Co, Switzerland - $325m
Nomura, Japan - $303m

Mrs Horlick said 9% of Bramdean's own funds were invested with Mr Madoff, but that even if the money was written off, the fund involved would be down just 4%.
"I just want to make it clear to investors that even after this, they would have done extremely well, relative to anything else they could have invested in," she said.
In a statement, Bramdean said: "The allegations made appear to point to a systemic failure of the regulatory and securities markets regime in the US."
However, some argued that the fund managers should themselves have done more.
"City figures cannot call for light touch regulation yet at the same time complain that regulators missed risks that the industry failed to spot," said Simon Morris, a partner with City law firm CMS Cameron McKenna.
"It's the unequivocal job of the fund manager to check out the bona fides of whoever they chose to pass their customers' money onto," he said.

Antonio Borges, chairman of the Hedge Fund Standards Board, said the scandal highlighted the need for "robust governance practices and oversight via independent boards, which will challenge management procedures and behaviour".
Meanwhile one of the City's watchdogs, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) called on whistleblowers to come forward with evidence of corporate wrongdoing in the wake of the credit crunch.
The Serious Fraud Office said it wanted workers, former staff and shareholders to step up with information over suspected fraud in the current financial turmoil.
Director Richard Alderman said: "Our objective is to ensure that we can bring offenders to justice as quickly as possible."

US prosecutors say Mr Madoff, a former head of the Nasdaq stock market, masterminded a fraud of massive proportions through his hedge fund and investment advisory business.
Mr Madoff is alleged to have used money from new investors to pay off existing investors in the fund.
A federal judge has appointed a receiver to oversee Mr Madoff firm's assets and customer accounts, while the 70-year-old banker has been released on $10m bail.
Mr Madoff founded Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities in 1960, but also ran a separate hedge fund business.
According to the US Attorney's criminal complaint filed in court, Mr Madoff told at least three employees on Wednesday that the hedge fund business - which served up to 25 clients and had $17.1bn under management - was a fraud and had been insolvent for years.
He said he was "finished", that he had "absolutely nothing" and "it's all just one big lie", and that it was "basically, a giant Ponzi scheme", the complaint said.
If found guilty, US prosecutors say he could face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $5m.
BBC NEWS REPORT

BRUNI SUES OVER NUDE BAG PICTURE!

Lawyers for Carla Bruni, wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, have filed a lawsuit against a company for selling a bag featuring a nude image of her.
They are claiming $160,000 (£104,000) in damages from the firm, Pardon, based in the Indian Ocean island of Reunion.
Her lawyers said neither Ms Bruni nor the photographer had given permission for use of the image, which was shot for a campaign against Aids in 1993.
The company says it has withdrawn the bags and will destroy them.
They have already been on sale in Reunion at a cost of three euros (£2.60), and were due to go on sale in France this week.
The white canvas bag features a black-and-white image of former model Ms Bruni, taken from a well-known 1993 photo of her standing upright in the nude.
"Neither Carla Bruni nor the photographer has given consent for the use of the photo," said lawyer Gesche Le Fur at the court hearing in Saint-Denis, capital of the French Indian Ocean island.

An original print of the photograph was sold for $91,000 (£59,000) this yearMs Bruni's legal team argue that the first lady did not want the image's original goal of raising Aids awareness to be "hijacked" and used for commercial purposes.
An original print of the picture - taken by Swiss-born fashion photographer Michel Comte - fetched $91,000 (£59,000) at a New York auction in April.
The bags show the naked Ms Bruni with a speech bubble that reads: "My boyfriend should have bought me Pardon."
Pardon boss Peter Mertes told the court that the 10,000 bags had been pulled from the shelves, and that the company planned to burn them.
Mr Mertes' lawyer argued that the sum sought by Ms Bruni was excessive.
The court is expected to give its decision on Thursday.

Correspondents say President Sarkozy has used the civil courts more than any other French president in a bid to protect his family.
He went to court in October demanding a ban on sales of a voodoo doll representing him.
An appeals court said the doll was an "offence against the personal dignity" of Mr Sarkozy, but it would be disproportionate to ban it.
In January, the Sarkozys also sued Irish budget airline Ryanair over an advert featuring Ms Bruni musing that, thanks to cheap flights, her Italian relatives would be able to attend their wedding.
A French court ordered Ryanair to pay symbolic damages of one euro to Sarkozy and 60,000 euros to his wife.
BBC NEWS REPORT

BOTSWANA DENIES MUGABE COUP CLAIM!

Botswana has rejected claims by Zimbabwe it is involved in a plot to oust President Robert Mugabe.
Zimbabwe's justice minister told state media they have "compelling evidence" Botswana was hosting military training camps for opposition rebels.
He said Botswana was helping recruit youths to destabilise and bring about illegal regime change in Zimbabwe.
But Botswana said it was "nothing more than distorted or concocted evidence, none of which is supported by facts".
A statement from Botswana's ministry of foreign affairs said: "Zimbabwe has signally failed to produce any tangible, much less compelling, facts in support of its allegations."
The ministry said it had already rejected Zimbabwe's claim "in the strongest possible terms" in a response to the Southern African Development Community (Sadc), which says it is investigating the allegations.
Sadc secretary general Tomaz Salamao confirmed earlier his organisation was analysing documents and videos submitted to them by the Zimbabwean authorities.
Observers say it is the first time that such openly hostile relations have emerged among any of the 15 Sadc members.
Botswana's President Ian Khama is one of the few African leaders to have publicly criticised Mr Mugabe.
Mr Khama has called for new elections after Mr Mugabe and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai reached deadlock in power-sharing negotiations.

Zimbabwe's ambulance Samaritan

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told the state-owned Herald newspaper: "Botswana has availed its territory, material and logistical support to [the MDC] for the recruitment and military training of youths for the eventual destabilisation of the country with a view of effecting illegal regime change.
"We now have evidence that while [the MDC] were talking peace they have been preparing for war and insurgency, as well as soliciting the West to invade our country on the pretext of things like cholera."
He claimed the opposition was "bent on foisting war on the country and the region" and warned Botswana of dire consequences.
Opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa dismissed the minister's claims saying: "When a leopard starts devouring its young ones, it starts by accusing that young one of smelling like a goat."
The UN Security Council is due to meet later in New York to receive a briefing - requested by European countries - from UN officials on Zimbabwe.
Analysts say it marks the 15-member body's re-engagement with Zimbabwe following July's veto of sanctions against Mr Mugabe and his allies by Russia and China.
A cholera epidemic that has killed nearly 1,000 people and infected more than 18,000 people, together with Zimbabwe's economic meltdown, have sparked new calls from Mr Mugabe's Western critics for the departure of the 84-year-old leader, who has ruled since independence in 1980.

The outbreak has been fuelled by the collapse of the country's health services, sanitation systems and water supply.
The justice minister's allegation comes a day after the US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee, accused Mr Mugabe of "criminal negligence" and warned Zimbabwe was becoming a failed state.
Writing in South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper, Mr McGee said: "What is the Mugabe regime doing? It is buying hundreds of cars so that every minister and governor can have multiple vehicles. It is buying plasma televisions for judges.
"Instead of spending scarce resources on water purification chemicals that might stop the cholera epidemic, they are manipulating currency to make a personal profit."
Mr Mugabe last week sparked uproar by claiming the cholera outbreak was over in Zimbabwe, while Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said the outbreak was the result of biological warfare launched by former colonial power Britain against Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, police have reportedly arrested a Zimbabwean journalist at his Harare home.
Accredited freelance reporter Andrisson Manyere was detained on Sunday, according to South African privately-owned newspaper The Star.
The reported detention follows a warning on Saturday by Mr Mugabe's spokesman of state action against journalists for "mis-reporting" on the cholera outbreak.
There has been growing concern in Zimbabwe about the number of human rights activists and MDC supporters who have been abducted since October. Some 18 are reportedly missing.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

"SAYINGS" !

"ALL GREAT DEEDS AND ALL GREAT THOUGHTS

HAVE A RIDICULOUS BEGINNING" !

____________

ZIMBABWE: BOTSWANA PLOTTING COUP !

Zimbabwe has accused Botswana of being involved in a plot to overthrow President Robert Mugabe's government.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told state media they have "compelling evidence" Botswana was hosting military training camps for opposition rebels.
He said Botswana was helping recruit youths to destabilise and bring about illegal regime change in Zimbabwe.
The MDC branded the claim "ridiculous", but Southern Africa's regional body said it was investigating.
The Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Secretary General Tomaz Salamao says his organisation is now analysing documents and videos that have been given to them by the Zimbabwean authorities, reports the BBC's Jonah Fisher.
Observers say it is the first time that such openly hostile relations have emerged among any of the 15 Sadc members.
Botswana's President Ian Khama is one of the few African leaders to have publicly criticised Mr Mugabe.
Mr Khama has called for new elections after Mr Mugabe and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai reached deadlock in power-sharing negotiations.

Zimbabwe's ambulance Samaritan
Africa press split on ousting Mugabe
Failing Zimbabwe: Special report

Mr Chinamasa told the state-owned Herald newspaper: "Botswana has availed its territory, material and logistical support to [the MDC] for the recruitment and military training of youths for the eventual destabilisation of the country with a view of effecting illegal regime change.
"We now have evidence that while [the MDC] were talking peace they have been preparing for war and insurgency, as well as soliciting the West to invade our country on the pretext of things like cholera."
He claimed the opposition was "bent on foisting war on the country and the region" and warned Botswana of dire consequences.
Opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa dismissed the minister's claims saying: "When a leopard starts devouring its young ones, it starts by accusing that young one of smelling like a goat."
The UN Security Council is due to meet later in New York to receive a briefing - requested by European countries - from UN officials on Zimbabwe.
Analysts say it marks the 15-member body's re-engagement with Zimbabwe following July's veto of sanctions against Mr Mugabe and his allies by Russia and China.

A cholera epidemic that has killed around 800 people and infected more than 16,000 people, together with Zimbabwe's economic meltdown, have sparked new calls from Mr Mugabe's Western critics for the departure of the 84-year-old leader, who has ruled since independence in 1980.
The outbreak has been fuelled by the collapse of the country's health services, sanitation systems and water supply.
The justice minister's allegation comes a day after the US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee, accused Mr Mugabe of "criminal negligence" and warned Zimbabwe was becoming a failed state.
Writing in South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper, Mr McGee said: "What is the Mugabe regime doing? It is buying hundreds of cars so that every minister and governor can have multiple vehicles. It is buying plasma televisions for judges.
"Instead of spending scarce resources on water purification chemicals that might stop the cholera epidemic, they are manipulating currency to make a personal profit."
Mr Mugabe last week sparked uproar by claiming the cholera outbreak was over in Zimbabwe, while Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said the outbreak was the result of biological warfare launched by former colonial power Britain against Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, police have reportedly arrested a Zimbabwean journalist at his Harare home.
Accredited freelance reporter Andrisson Manyere was detained on Sunday, according to South African privately-owned newspaper The Star.
The reported detention follows a warning on Saturday by Mr Mugabe's spokesman of state action against journalists for "mis-reporting" on the cholera outbreak.
There has been growing concern in Zimbabwe about the number of human rights activists and MDC supporters who have been abducted since October. Some 18 are reportedly missing.

See detailed map of cholera-affected areas

BBC NEWS REPORT.

TEENAGER COMPLETES UK COAST WALK !

A teenager who sparked a land and air rescue operation after stealing a boat has completed a sponsored walk around Britain to make amends.
Seb Green was 15 when he and a friend sparked a search costing £20,000 when they got stranded near Weymouth Harbour, Dorset, in May 2004.
He has spent nearly a year walking 5,821 miles (9,367km) around Britain with his border collie, Flash.
Mr Green, 19, of Weymouth, set off on 1 February and arrived home on Sunday.
He said he was delighted to be back in Preston, near Weymouth.
"I have given up almost a year of my life and it has been an extremely worthwhile sacrifice," Mr Green said.
"It will be a strange feeling not having to wake up in the morning and not having to pack my bag and start walking.
"Now I am just looking forward to Christmas and spending time with my family."
Mr Green has raised more than £20,000 for the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance and Starlight Children's Foundation, a charity which grants wishes for seriously and terminally ill children and provides hospital entertainment.

Mr Green and his friend became stranded in mud in Fleet Lagoon late at night on 8 May 2004.
Both teenagers began shouting for help and as he got out of the boat to walk to safety he became stuck up to his waist in mud.
Fortunately, a passer-by heard their screams and called for help.
The coastguard helicopter, Dorset Police helicopter, two coastguard land-based teams and two RNLI lifeboats were scrambled to rescue the pair.
They were plucked to safety by the coastguard helicopter at about midnight.

Mr Green, who celebrated his 19th birthday in Plymouth along the way, said: "It was a very stupid thing to do.
"At the time I felt extremely guilty but as time has moved on the sense of guilt has faded.
"I don't think the £20,000 will make amends for the prank.
"What the £20,000 will do is help brighten up the lives of seriously ill children and assist the air ambulance in saving lives."
Mr Green and his three-year-old dog walked to Dover along the Thames Estuary, up to Scotland taking in John O'Groats, before heading back south walking through Wales, Lands End and The Lizard, in Cornwall and then along the south coast back to Weymouth.
Highlights of his walk included seeing a white-tailed sea eagle near Loch Ewe in Scotland and an otter in Applecross, Scotland.
The trek has not been without problems, Mr Green has a recurring knee injury and Flash was hurt jumping over a barbed wire fence.
He slept under the stars in his tent for most of the trip and people also donated their spare rooms.
Mr Green said he planned to study A-levels in Biology and English before joining the Royal Marines.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

GREEK POLICE 'BRUTALITY' !

By Malcolm Brabant - BBC News, Athens.

A British expatriate businessman living in Athens has told how a pre-bedtime stroll with his dog led to an introduction to Greek police violence.
The man, who is in his thirties, and has asked not to be identified, contacted the BBC after witnessing what he says was unjustified brutality and aggression in the popular bar district of Gazi in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The alleged clash happened not long after scores of masked youths attacked a police station in the nearby district of Exarchia, where 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos was shot dead a week ago by police.
The businessman said that while he was walking his dog and came across a "largely peaceful" demonstration passing the bars and coffee shops about 3km (two miles) from the Acropolis. He decided to tag along.
There was a "carnival atmosphere", he said, as the demonstrators chanted slogans and invited young Greeks to put down their drinks and join the group.
"As the group, numbering about 600, walked up Pireos Street, several bus loads of riot police arrived and began to deploy at the front and back of the demonstration and on side streets," he said.
"After the majority of the protesters had passed one of these side streets, a group of riot police charged and forced about 15 young men and women into a dark shop front on the corner of the street.
"As the protesters put their hands on their heads to signify that they were not intending to fight, the police began beating individuals with their batons, issuing threats of extreme violence. The women were handcuffed together and the men strip-searched.
"Additional police joined the group to stop passers-by witnessing what was going on. Four young men aged about 20 and clearly not connected to the demonstration walked past. They were ushered on.
"As they were walking away, a riot policeman ran up behind one of the men kicking him in the back making obscene comments about his size. As the man turned, the policeman began beating the young man with his baton, striking him on the head and the side of his face."
The BBC asked Greece's police headquarters to comment on the allegations, and after initially denying knowledge of the case, returned our call within 10 minutes with a statement vigorously denying the use of force.

A spokesman said: "The incident happened late last night. A group of people were moving in Pireos Street. They started causing a disturbance and trashing things close to the Ministry of Employment."
"Three teams of police, comprising 60 officers were deployed and made 51 arrests in the presence of television cameramen," he added.
The police spokesman insisted this version of events was correct.
"If anything like the events described by your witness had taken place, the media would not have missed the opportunity to film it, as this is exactly the sort of thing they are looking for. It would have been extremely difficult to have missed such an incident at that particular location," the spokesman added.
Following the police statement, the BBC interviewed the British businessman again.
"I did not see a camera person there. I cannot believe they arrested 50 people. The impression I had was that there was no major trouble until the police arrived. I saw them smash a couple of cash machines and closed circuit television cameras on the street and there was some stone throwing," he said.
"There were elements who wanted to cause trouble," he acknowledged. "But others on the demo were trying to stop it. And it was the peaceful ones who ended up being beaten."
The witness, who speaks Greek, said he overheard the police saying to their detainees: "We have you now. You are out of your universities now… We are going to kill you."
One of the demonstrators told the BBC the same story almost word for word.
"The person in front of me was hit with a baton, as was the person behind. I fainted and they didn't get me. I was in a total panic. Anyone who moved got hit. Anyone who talked got hit," she said.
"A policeman kept on marching front of us and screaming verbal abuse. He was saying we are going to kill you. It was very scary," she added.

Since the death of Alexis, about 400 people have been arrested and 70 people injured.
The government has instructed the police to take a defensive stance to ensure that there is no more bloodshed.
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis told President Karolas Papoulias that the "enemies of democracy" could not expect any leniency.
About 12 hours before Alexandros Grigoropoulos was killed, riot police are alleged to have baton charged several thousand economic migrants and would be refugees who were trying to obtain the necessary papers to claim political asylum.
During the panic, one young South Asian man plunged head first into a concrete lined canal and was critically injured.
He has been on a life support in intensive care for more than a week. On Monday, doctors are due to turn off the machine to see whether he can survive unaided.
Amnesty International has criticised the riot police for using excessive force during the course of the past week.
The police claim that they are amongst Greece's most poorly paid public servants and are often forced to take second jobs to make ends meet.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

SHOES THROWN AT BUSH IN IRAQ!

A surprise visit by US President George Bush to Iraq has been overshadowed by an incident in which two shoes were thrown at him during a news conference.
An Iraqi journalist was wrestled to the floor by security guards after he called Mr Bush "a dog" and threw his footwear, just missing the president.
The US president has now continued to Afghanistan to inspect troops there.
He arrived before dawn at Bagram air force base, and is due to hold talks with President Hamid Karzai.
Earlier in Baghdad, Mr Bush and Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki signed the new security agreement between their countries.
The pact calls for US troops to leave Iraq in 2011 - eight years after the 2003 invasion that has in part defined the Bush presidency.
Speaking just over five weeks before he hands over power to Barack Obama, Mr Bush also said the war in Iraq was not over and more work remained to be done.
His previously unannounced visit came a day after Defence Secretary Robert Gates told US troops the Iraq mission was in its "endgame".
In the middle of the news conference with Mr Maliki, Iraqi television journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi stood up and shouted "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog," before hurling a shoe at Mr Bush which narrowly missed him.
Showing the soles of shoes to someone is a sign of contempt in Arab culture.

With his second shoe, which the president also managed to dodge, Mr Zaidi said: "This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq."
Mr Zaidi, a correspondent for Cairo-based al-Baghdadiya TV, was then wrestled to the ground by security personnel and hauled away.
"If you want the facts, it's a size 10 shoe that he threw," Mr Bush joked afterwards.
Al-Baghdadiya's bureau chief told the Associated Press that he had no idea what prompted Mr Zaidi to attack President Bush, although reports say he was once kidnapped by a militia and beaten up.
"I am trying to reach Muntadar since the incident, but in vain," said Fityan Mohammed. "His phone is switched off."
Correspondents said the attack was symbolic. Iraqis threw shoes and used them to beat Saddam Hussein's statue after his overthrow.
Mr Bush's first stop upon arriving in Baghdad was the Iraqi presidential palace in the heavily-fortified Green Zone, where he held talks with President Jalal Talabani.

PREVIOUS BUSH VISITS TO IRAQ
Nov 2003: Serves Thanksgiving dinner to troops in Baghdad
June 2006: Meets new Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki
Sept 2007: Visits Anbar province - former stronghold of Saddam Hussein

"The work hasn't been easy but it's been necessary for American security, Iraqi hope and world peace," Mr Bush said during his talks with Mr Talabani.
The Iraqi president called Mr Bush "a great friend for the Iraqi people, who helped us liberate our country".
The BBC's Humphrey Hawksley, in Baghdad, says the key issue at present is exactly how American troops will withdraw within the next three years and what sort of Iraq they will leave behind.
President Bush said events have been necessary for US security and world peace
The US media has just published details of a US government report saying that post invasion reconstruction of Iraq was crippled by bureaucratic turf wars and an ignorance of the basic elements of Iraqi society.
The report is circulating among US officials in draft form, says the New York Times.
It reveals details of a reconstruction effort that cost more than $100bn (£67bn) and only succeeded in restoring what was destroyed in the invasion and the widespread looting that followed it, the newspaper said.

George Bush says being pelted with shoes could be one of the 'weirdest' moments of his presidencyMr Bush's visit, unannounced in advance and conducted under tight security, follows the approval last month of a security pact between Washington and Baghdad that calls for US troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2011.
US troops are first to withdraw from Iraqi cities, including Baghdad, by June next year.
Defence Secretary Gates said on Saturday that "the process of the drawdown" had begun.
"We are, I believe, in terms of the American commitment, in the endgame here in Iraq," he told US troops at an airbase near Baghdad.
Mr Gates has been picked to stay on as defence secretary by President-elect Barack Obama.

President Bush leaves the White House in less than six weeks. He said in a recent interview with ABC News that the biggest regret of his presidency was the false intelligence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
Finding these was one of the key justifications for the invasion. None were ever found.
Mr Obama has promised to bring home US combat troops from Iraq in a little over a year from when he takes office in January.
More than 4,200 US troops and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians and security personnel have been killed since the invasion in 2003.
There are currently about 149,000 US soldiers in Iraq, down from last year's peak of 170,000 after extra troops were poured in to deal with a worsening security situation.
As Mr Bush arrived in Baghdad, Gen David Petraeus, the head of the US Central Command, which includes Iraq, said attacks in the country had dropped from 180 a day in June 2007 to 10 a day now.
In a sign of modest security gains in Iraq, Mr Bush was welcomed with a formal arrival ceremony - a flourish that was not part of his previous three visits.
He arrived in the country on Air Force One, which landed at Baghdad International Airport in the afternoon, after a secretive Saturday night departure from Washington on an 11-hour flight.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

TWO BANKS EXPOSED TO $50bn CON !

Two major European banks said they have exposure worth billions of dollars to a US broker accused of a $50bn (£33bn) Wall Street fraud scheme.
Spain's largest bank, Santander, which also owns three UK banks, said one of its funds had $3.1bn invested in the firm run by Bernard Madoff.
France's BNP Paribas estimated its exposure to be more than $460m.
Mr Madoff has been charged with fraud, in what is being described as one of the biggest-ever such cases.
Correspondents say the case is likely to fuel uncertainty about the entire hedge fund industry.
Mr Madoff is alleged to have used money from new investors to pay off existing investors in the fund.
Investors are assessing their exposure to the alleged fraud Mr Madoff is said by prosecutors to have confessed to.
US Prosecutors say Mr Madoff, a former head of the Nasdaq stock market, masterminded a fraud of massive proportions through his hedge fund and investment advisory business.

A federal judge has appointed a receiver to oversee Mr Madoff firm's assets and customer accounts, while the 70-year-old banker has been released on $10m bail.
"While BNP Paribas has no investment of its own in the hedge funds managed by Bernard Madoff Investment Services, it does have risk exposure to these funds through its trading business and collateralised lending to funds of hedge funds," BNP said in a statement.
Santander said its exposure to Madoff was through its investment fund Optimal.
Santander also owns the UK High Street banks Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley.
UK-based asset management firm Bramdean Alternatives accused US regulators of "systemic failures".
The firm saw its share value drop by over 35% after it revealed that about £21m - nearly 10% of its holding - was exposed to the New York broker.
"It is astonishing that this apparent fraud seems to have been continuing for so long, possibly for decades, while investors have continued to invest more money into the Madoff funds in good faith," the firm said.
"The allegations made appear to point to a systemic failure of the regulatory and securities markets regime in the US."

Mr Madoff founded Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities in 1960, but also ran a separate hedge fund business.
Investors have withdrawn from hedge funds amid market volatility.
According to the US Attorney's criminal complaint filed in court, Mr Madoff told at least three employees on Wednesday that the hedge fund business - which served up to 25 clients and had $17.1bn under management - was a fraud and had been insolvent for years, losing at least $50bn.
He said he was "finished", that he had "absolutely nothing" and that "it's all just one big lie", and that it was "basically, a giant Ponzi scheme", the complaint said.
He told them that he planned to surrender to the authorities but not before he used his last $200m-$300m to pay "selected employees, family and friends".
Under a Ponzi scheme, which is similar to pyramid schemes, investors are promised very high returns on their investment, while in reality early investors are paid with money collected from later investors.
If found guilty, US prosecutors say he could face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $5m.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

S. KOREA PARENTS FINED OVER RAPE

A South Korean court has fined the parents of a teenage rapist more than $60,000 (£40,000) for failing to supervise their son.
The 18-year-old, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, raped a local seven-year-old girl in 2006.
The court said the boy had grown up watching pornography and had imitated a film he had seen, during the attack.
It said his parents could have prevented the crime with appropriate education, but neglected their duty.
The teenager is serving a 10-year sentence for the rape, but a court in Seoul ruled that his parents were also liable for his crime.
A court statement said: "The parents could have prevented the crime with appropriate education but failed to show enough attention to their child.
"They neglected their duty to raise their child so that he can properly adjust to society."
The girl's parents were seeking 225m won ($165,000; £111,000) in damages.
The identities of all the parties involved in the case have been withheld.
Analysts say the case raises many questions about the extent to which parents can be held responsible for the actions of their children.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

A CURIOUSLY FRENCH COMPLAINT!

BY Emma Jane Kirby - BBC News, Paris.

When I was a student, living in Avignon in the south of France, I remember waking up one morning shortly before Christmas, feeling shivery and as if someone had spent the night sandpapering my throat.

The French take any signs of illness very seriously. After a couple of days of wheezing and coughing, I took myself to the doctor and explained that I was feeling a bit ropey.
One hour later I had been diagnosed with a severe lung infection, mild asthma and had in my hand a prescription for six different types of medicine, an appointment at the local hospital's radiology department and an emergency referral to a specialist in pulmonary disease.
The next day I flew home to the UK for the Christmas holidays where my worried parents persuaded me to visit their local GP for a second opinion.
After five minutes in his consulting room, I emerged empty-handed but with a new diagnosis. I had… a cold.

I am not suggesting that the French are a nation of hypochondriacs but they do take their health very seriously.
France is the biggest consumer of antibiotics in Europe. The government has recently tried to wean the country off its dependency with a series of TV advertisements which reassure the ailing that they do not always need drugs.
On the metro, disease hangs thickly in the warm air, and people eye one another warily, sizing up which passenger is likely to be carrying the plague before choosing their seat A Parisian GP I know, Dr Auber, believes that France enjoys a reputation for having such a great health service simply because its doctors routinely prescribe more medicines.
Now he says they are "Anglicising" the system, turning away from the indulgent "There, there" approach and moving towards a much more "Get along with you now" stiff upper lip attitude.
It is not going down too well.
Dr Auber claims that many of his patients are deeply disappointed if they do not get a prescription after a visit to his practice and he is quite sure that many go off mumbling that he has not bothered to treat them.
With the current cold snap here, everyone is feeling pretty grotty and congested.
Even the sky looks bunged up and it is continually snivelling and spluttering sleet onto the Parisians who in turn are sneezing and rasping into handkerchiefs.
On the Metro, disease hangs thickly in the warm air, and people eye one another warily, sizing up which passenger is likely to be carrying the plague, before choosing their seat and tightening the protective scarves around their throats.
At least they have their medicines to console them.
Dr Auber told me that a French colleague of his, who recently moved to join a surgery in London, was staggered to see her British colleagues telling patients complaining of blocked ears, to just go home and pour olive oil into them.

In France she said, her patients would have demanded a medical prescription to shift the unwanted wax and she would have felt obliged to write one out.
But while stuffed-up orifices may be a common symptom on both sides of the Channel, there is one disease that only the Gallic appear susceptible to, and in fact, according to Dr Auber, it is one of the illnesses French people complain about most.Correct me if I am wrong, but have you ever heard a British person complain they are suffering from "heavy legs"?
Fascinated by a malady to which British people appear immune, I went to my local pharmacy and asked the smiling young chemist if she could advise me on remedies for heavy legs.
"Oh, bad luck," she said indicating two entire shelves of pills and potions. "Do you get heavy legs in the winter too? I only suffer from them in the summer," and she handed me a cream with "real grape seeds", assuring me it was very effective when rubbed vigorously twice daily from the ankle to the knee.
I have often wondered if one can get signed off work with heavy legs. I am almost tempted to call my editor to try out the scenario.
"Oh yeah hi, it's Emma Jane. Look I'm really sorry but I'm not going to make it in today - I'm afraid I've got heavy legs again."
The French consume more than a third of the entire world's supply of heavy legs medicines Unfortunately, my boss is a regular listener to this programme, so by now he will be aware of my British immunity to the illness and would presumably tell me to hop it.
Dr Auber confirms that British people simply do not suffer from this mysterious weightiness of the lower limbs, and adds that the French consume more than a third of the entire world's supply of heavy legs medicines.
Curiously though, he has noticed that since the French health insurance companies stopped paying for heavy legs remedies a couple of years ago, consumption of these products is now 10 times less than it used to be.

A couple of years back, while skiing in the Alps after a tiring stint in Afghanistan, I noticed my legs were covered in small red spots and I was feeling lethargic. Could I finally have contracted the elusive heavy legs syndrome?
"No!" said the alarmed French doctor, "you have a tropical illness and you need to go straight to hospital."
Laughing to myself at the typical Gallic solicitousness, I popped a Paracetamol and headed straight back to the slopes.
Two days later, delirious with fever and covered in enormous black lumps, I was lying in the isolation unit of a London hospital, howling in pain and terrified what my test results would reveal.
Alerted by my cries, a masked nurse popped her head around the door.
"Oh for goodness sake," she said brusquely. "Anyone would think you were dying. You've only got suspected leprosy."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

U.S. MAN USES PIZZA IN SELF-DEFENCE!

A hot pizza can be quite a handful. A Florida pizza delivery man who was challenged by armed robbers in the city of Miramar got in first with his own weapon - a large pepperoni pizza.

Eric Lopez Devictoria, 40, flung the piping hot pizza at the gunman, then turned on his heels and ran.

He made a safe getaway, according to the Florida Sun-Sentinel, despite one shot being fired as he fled.

Police later arrested three teenage suspects, who have been charged with armed robbery.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

NE WIN'S DAUGHTER FREED IN BURMA!

Burma's military government has freed the daughter of the late leader, Ne Win, who has been under house arrest for more than six years, friends said.
The woman, Sandar Win, was detained with her father in 2002 over an alleged plot to overthrow the government.
Her husband and three sons were sentenced to death, although they have not yet been executed. Ne Win died under house arrest in 2002.
There has been no statement from the Burmese authorities on the release.
Ne Win took power in a bloodless military coup in 1962, and remained in power until 1988, when a pro-democracy uprising forced him to step down and hand power to a new military leadership.
His daughter Sandar Win - a doctor - is believed to have played a major role in the suppression of the democracy movement in 1988 after her father resigned as ruler.
That was also when she left the military's medical services and became a businesswoman.
Before her detention she presided over the Ne Win clan as it developed a significant business empire encompassing hotels, medical services and telecommunications.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ICE STORM CRIPPLES NORTH-EAST U.S.A.

As many as 1m people have been left without power in the north-eastern US after one of the worst ice storms in a decade crippled the electricity grid.
States of emergency have been declared in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and in parts of Maine and New York state.
Officials say the damage is extensive and it could take several days before all power is restored. Temperatures are forecast to remain below freezing.
At least four people are so far thought to have died as a result of the storm.
The body of a public works supervisor was recovered from a reservoir in Marlborough, Massachusetts, on Saturday, a day after he responded to a call about tree branches downed by the storm.
Meanwhile, a man in Danville,