Top Zimbabwe minister acquitted

28 June 2011 Last updated at 15:55 GMT Elton Mangoma is one of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's key allies in the cabinet Zimbabwe's Energy Minister Elton Mangoma has been acquitted of corruption charges.

He was tried over a multi-million dollar fuel deal negotiated with a South African company.

The High Court in Harare ruled that Mr Mangoma did not benefit from the deal and did not flout tender procedures.

Mr Mangoma is a founder of the Movement for Democratic Change, which has been in an uneasy coalition with President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF since 2009.

'Ignorant and vindictive'

The BBC's Brian Hungwe in the capital, Harare, says the judge threw out he case, ruling that Mr Mangoma had no case to answer.

The energy minister said the verdict showed that the MDC was being "persecuted", but he would press ahead with his job in the power-sharing government.

"These is no need to be bitter when dealing with ignorant and vindictive people," Mr Mangoma said.

Leading members of Zanu-PF party had called for Mr Mangoma to be charged following claims of irregular fuel purchases from neighbouring South Africa.

Zanu-PF members said tender procedures had been violated and only a small amount of the fuel had been delivered despite the payment of several million dollars.

Mr Mangoma ordered the fuel at the height of a fuel crisis in Zimbabwe in January.

He was arrested in March and escorted from his offices by three plain-clothes officers.

Another MDC minister, Jameson Timba, was arrested last week for allegedly calling Mr Mugabe a liar.

But a court later ordered his release, saying his arrest was illegal.

The coalition government, which came to power after disputed elections in 2008, has helped stabilise the economy.

But the administration has been fraught with squabbles over introducing reforms.

Mr Mugabe has been pushing for polls this year, but human rights activists have been worried about reports of increased political harassment of his opponents.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, argues without a new constitution and electoral reforms, forthcoming polls will not be free and fair.

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Egypt anger at Mickey Mouse tweet

28 June 2011 Last updated at 12:40 GMT Naguib Sawiris is a leading secularist and recently formed a political party One of Egypt's richest men has been accused of mocking Islam after tweeting cartoons of Mickey and Minnie Mouse wearing conservative Muslim attire.

Telecoms mogul and Coptic Christian Naguib Sawiris apologised for re-posting the images on Twitter a few days ago, saying he meant no offence.

But several Islamic lawyers have filed a formal complaint and there are calls for a boycott of his businesses.

The outcry comes at a time of tension between Egypt's Christians and Muslims.

There are also concerns about the growing influence of the ultra-conservative Salafists in Egypt. Salafists take their inspiration from the early generations of Muslims who were close to the Prophet Muhammad and his message.

The tweeted images showed Mickey Mouse wearing a traditional Islamic robe with a full beard, while Minnie Mouse is wearing a niqab - a full-body veil - with just her eyes showing.

She is identifiable by her large ears and trademark pink hair ribbon.

The cartoons were already widely circulating online, but when Mr Sawiris re-posted them last week, he received an immediate angry reaction from people who said they were offended.

On Friday, he tweeted: "I apologise for those who don't take this as a joke, I just thought it was a funny picture; no disrespect meant. I am sorry."

But tens of thousands of people have joined groups on Facebook and other social media condemning him.

"There's a fine line between expressing your opinion/freedom of speech and being flat out disrespectful," said one woman.

Secular champion

Shares in Mr Sawiris' telecoms company, Orascom - Egypt's largest private employer - have already fallen as a result of the row and subsequent calls for a boycott.

Cairo has seen violent clashes between Christians and Muslims in recent months

The prosecutor general's office said a group of Salafist Muslim lawyers had filed a complaint accusing Mr Sawiris of religious contempt.

"How can a man like this make fun of Muslims, in a country on the brink of sectarian discord," Muslim cleric Mazen el-Sersawi said in a television interview.

"If this is just joking, why don't you depict Mickey Mouse as a monk or a nun?"

Mr Sawiris, whose father is the richest man in Egypt, is a champion of secularism and has spoken out against the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the country, including the increasing number of women wearing full-face veils.

He was a leading voice in the anti-government protests that ousted Hosni Mubarak from power in February and recently started a new political party, The Free Egyptians.

But many have questioned his wisdom in sharing the cartoons at a time of tensions between Coptic Christians and conservative Muslims.

Scores of people have been wounded and several killed in clashes between the two communities in recent months, and there are fears this row will increase the chances of more sectarian clashes in the run up to post-revolution elections in September.

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Recipe for revolution

28 June 2011 Last updated at 14:34 GMT By Shashank Joshi Associate fellow, Royal United Services Institute Egypt's army initially tried to dislodge protesters, but eventually took their side against the president In the wave of dissent sweeping over the Arab world, an old lesson is being re-learnt: that armies are the key to unlocking a revolution's potential.

After the ignominious fall of Presidents Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, it was widely noted that these events disproved the 'Arab exception' - the belief, held in the face of mountains of contradictory evidence, that Arabs did not want democracy.

But the overwhelming focus on the "demand-side" of an uprising lost sight of something more important: that the "market for revolution" cannot clear if the army is both able and willing to use overwhelming force. In other words, armies control the "supply-side" of revolution.

History is replete with abortive awakenings, in which the supply constraint has choked off change: Europe 1848, Hungary 1956, Prague 1968, Beijing 1989, and - what may turn into the tragic footnote to the Arab Spring - Bahrain 2011. Syria could be appended to that list in short order.

Independent identity

This is about much more than raw coercive capacity. Both Iran's army in 1979 and Egypt's this year could have put up stiff resistance to the movements that swept away incumbent dictators. Why did they hold their fire?

Continue reading the main story

Armies that are little more than outgrowths of an autocratic regime know that they have no institutional future if protesters get their way”

End Quote The answer lies in civil-military dynamics. Armies that have their own identity, that possess a corporate existence separate from their political masters, often choose to manage political transition rather than simply squelch it. They see a future beyond the regime.

In Turkey, Pakistan, and now Egypt, the army has judged that it can enjoy its economic and political privileges by controlling the scope and direction of change.

In fact, outright repression would tarnish the invaluable national credentials each institution enjoys, largely as a result of its own myth-making and manipulation.

Egypt's army did try to dislodge the masses in Tahrir Square. But when it realised it could not do so without enormous bloodshed that would also wash away the institution's veneer, it shied away.

On the other hand, armies that are little more than outgrowths of an autocratic regime know that they have no institutional future if protesters get their way.

Servile armies A man briefly blocks the path of tanks following the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, when hundreds were killed

In Syria, 70% of career soldiers and 80% of officers are drawn from the ruling minority Alawite clan. Those units employed in crackdowns and massacres, such as the Fourth Division controlled by President Bashar al-Assad's brother, are all-Alawite, as are key intelligence organisations and militias.

These armies - like Bahrain's security forces and Libya's elite brigades - may be disciplined and cohesive, but they are not professional. Since their fate is bound up with that of the regimes, they have little compunction in unleashing violence.

It is this distinction, between independent and servile armies, that is one of the most important parameters in determining the trajectory of an uprising.

An independent, professional army, no matter how powerful, will have appealing alternatives to bloodshed. That doesn't guarantee a democratic revolution - see the sorry paths of 1980s Turkey or 1990s Pakistan - but it does enable a change.

Continue reading the main story

With the understandable romanticisation of raw protest, we lose sight of the fact that massed crowds are but one ingredient of successful regime change”

End Quote Armies with a distinct corporate identity can produce dangerous Praetorian states - where the military exercises undue influence over the political regime - but they can also enable peaceful transitions.

For those armies that opt for violence, capacity does matter. The archetypal case remains Tiananmen Square. Even though 3,500 PLA officers disobeyed orders in 1989, this was only a fraction of the overall total used in the crackdown.

Sectarian armies

It helped that the PLA's 27th Army was at the forefront; this unit's troops were from northern Shaanxi Province, speaking a different dialect to the student protesters.

Bahrain learnt this lesson well, and spent years importing Sunni mercenaries from Pakistan. They have proved to be ready to fire on Shia protesters.

The Iraqi army, a mostly Sunni force, had similarly little compunction about brutally putting down the 1991 uprising in Shia and Kurdish parts of the country.

In Syria, the Assad regime cynically uses Christian and Druze troops against Sunni targets.

The UAE has gone a step further, reportedly hiring Blackwater founder Erik Prince to help establish an all-mercenary force of about 800 foreign fighters.

Ethnic difference matters.

Patchwork militias Syrian troops have deployed in several towns where protests have been held

Nonetheless, most armies do not enjoy the Tiananmen option. A weak army, or one where only select units are equipped and led by regime loyalists, will quickly disintegrate into patchwork militias.

In Libya, eastern units peeled away from Gaddafi at the outset of the conflict, sowing the seeds of a civil war. What could have been another Hama - the 1982 massacre perpetrated by an earlier incarnation of the Assad regime in Syria - became something much less simple.

All of this is not to neglect the demand-side of revolution. After all, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have all been largely quiet, and not just because of fear.

But with the understandable romanticisation of raw protest, we lose sight of the fact that massed crowds are but one ingredient of successful regime change.

For those peering into these restive states, this is a reminder that capacity-building in the absence of professionalisation simply produces more efficient slaughter.

Britain trained and equipped some of the Libyan special forces who inflicted such horrors on cities like Misrata. Western states continue to train Saudi forces, and this may well have much the same effect.

For those that find this improbable, consider that six months ago Bahrain was considered a humane and liberalising country whose parliamentary institutions obviated the need for a crackdown.

The more immediate lessons may be these: parts of Yemen's splintered forces have proven flexible enough to manoeuvre away from the Saleh regime, and might yet fall in line behind a transitional government that emerges.

Syria's sectarian army, on the other hand, will not go down without a fierce fight - one that they have an excellent chance of winning.

Shashank Joshi is an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a defence think-tank in London, and a doctoral student of international relations at Harvard University.

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Uganda and Burundi to get drones

28 June 2011 Last updated at 15:31 GMT The US sees Islamist militants in Somalia as a security threat The US is supplying drone aircrafts to Uganda and Burundi to help them fight Islamist militants in Somalia, its defence officials have told the BBC.

The four drones will be part of a $45m (?28m) military aid package aid to the two countries.

Uganda and Burundi contribute the 9,000 peacekeepers to African peace force in Somalia battling Islamists that control much of the country.

The US sees Somalia as an al-Qaeda haven in East Africa.

Air strikes

The US military command for Africa (Africom) confirmed to the BBC that the Pentagon plan was to strengthen Uganda's and Burundi's counter-terrorism capabilities.

The military aid is to include body armour, night-vision gear, communications and surveillance systems.

The al-Shabab Islamist group, which has links to al-Qaeda, control large swathes of southern and central Somalia, including parts of the capital, Mogadishu.

Analysts say Somalia's weak interim government relies heavily on the African Union peacekeepers to stave off the threat posed by al-Shabab.

There have been US air strikes on al-Shabab in the past, and a US special operations team killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, one of the most senior leaders of al-Qaeda's East Africa cell, inside Somalia in 2009.

The US has a military base in neighbouring Djibouti where some 3,000 US troops, as well as armour, aircraft and drones are based.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since the fall of Siad Bare in 1991.

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'Tortoise mafia'

28 June 2011 Last updated at 02:34 GMT By Hannah McNeish BBC News, Madagascar Madagascar's tortoises sell for thousands of dollars on the black market Madagascar's poachers, known in conservation circles as "the tortoise mafia", are increasingly hunting down the Indian Ocean island's reptiles, threatening them with extinction.

The tortoise mafia, who allegedly include corrupt government officials and smuggling syndicates, are satisfying a growing demand locally for tortoise meat and abroad for exotic pets and tortoise shells used in aphrodisiacs.

"Everybody is eating them and everybody is trafficking them and as soon as people are brought to trial, there are mafia organisations who help to get them out," says the head of Madagascar's Alliance of Conservation Groups, Ndranto Razakamanarina.

Another conservationist, Tsilavo Rafeliarisoa, says two poachers were caught last year in southern Madagascar with 50 tortoises.

This was a small breakthrough in efforts to protect the island's endangered tortoises, which include the Ploughshare, Spider, Radiated and Flat-tailed species.

Often, poachers roam villages in groups of up to 100, picking up thousands of tortoises over several weeks.

Guns and machetes

They are heavily armed, fending off attempts to stop them.

"When a gang of poachers with guns and machetes come and take tortoises, the villagers are defenceless," Mr Rafeliarisoa says.

Tortoise meat is a favourite dish on the island

He says with food prices rising, more people are eating tortoise meat.

It has become a favourite snack in southern towns such as Tsiombe and Beloka, even among government officials who ought to be at the forefront of campaigns to save the reptiles from extinction.

"They say: 'Give me the special' - and the special is tortoise meat. It is a huge market," Mr Rafeliarisoa says.

Herilala Randriamahazo of Madagascar's Turtle Survival Alliance says he recently went on a research trip to Tsiombe and Beloka, posing as a tourist to see how common tortoise meat has become on restaurant menus.

To his horror, a bowl of tortoise meat, stewed in tomatoes, garlic and onion, was sold for a mere $2.50 (?1.50).

It was served to him in less than 30 minutes.

Continue reading the main story

People respected tortoises. They did not even touch them”

End Quote Ndranto Razakamanarina Madagascar's Alliance of Conservation Groups "I sent it back. The waiter said he could get me something different, even a live one right away," Mr Randriamahazo says.

He says the streets of Tsiombe and Beloka are littered with tortoise shells - an unfortunate sign of the insatiable appetite people have acquired for them.

Yet, Madagascar's tortoises were once protected by the cultural beliefs of some of the island's communities.

"People respected tortoises. They did not even touch them," Mr Randriamahazo says.

Now, if tortoises do not end up in the rubbish heaps of restaurants, they end up in the suitcases of tortoise smugglers.

Sexual potions

Madagascar is known for its rich biodiversity but this has attracted smugglers interested in everything from its precious rosewood to minerals and tortoises - and the famous lemurs.

An alliance of 27 national conservation groups recently accused the government of being complicit in the illegal trade, as it had not cracked down on the "looting and plunder" of natural resources.

A WWF report on Madagascar's biodiversity earlier this month said more than 600 new species had been discovered in the "Treasure Island" over the last 10 years, but many were already endangered.

With only a few hundred of the world's most endangered Ploughshare Tortoises left, hundreds of species are crawling towards extinction behind them.

Tortoise shells litter towns in Madagascar

Hasina Randriamanampisoa, of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, says the smuggling rings are well-organised, selling tortoises on the black market in Asian countries such as Thailand.

Wealthy Asians see tortoises as exotic pets, and are prepared to pay up to $10,000 (?6,250) for them.

Traditional doctors in Asia also buy the shells of baby tortoises, using them in medicine concoctions that allegedly enhance the sexual performance of men.

Conservationists say smugglers pack up to 400 baby tortoises in suitcases, before flying to cities such as Bangkok.

Increasingly, they are also smuggling out adult tortoises to breed in captivity in Asian countries.

Mr Randriamanampisoa says tortoise numbers are rapidly dwindling and they risk extinction over the next decade.

"Even if the poaching stops now, the natural habitat is so vast, there are chances that the females cannot meet the males in the wild to mate and to have babies," he says.

Mr Randriamanampisoa said there four species of tortoise "are endemic to Madagascar, so if they disappear here you will only be able to see them in zoos".

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Libya rebels 'face health crisis'

28 June 2011 Last updated at 04:51 GMT By Bridget Kendall BBC News, Benghazi Hospital staff say they have to share out what drugs are left among the sick children A medical crisis is looming in eastern Libya with hospitals in Benghazi running short of supplies, the rebels' health minister says.

Stocks of drugs and other items such as surgical gloves are said to be running out.

Dr Nagi Barakat told the BBC that most emergency aid donated from abroad went straight to the front line.

He said that if a new offensive broke out, hospitals would face a major crisis.

On the cancer ward of Benghazi's children's hospital, most patients are not getting the right dosage. There aren't enough drugs to go round.

Dr Amina Bayou says she and her colleagues juggle supplies to give everyone a little.

"We try to divide the drugs between this patient and that patient. It's not good," she said.

"We are treating more than 200 children. We ask parents to go to Egypt to buy medicines and when they bring them back, we divide them up like parcelling out food."

In one room, a two-year-old called Bubaker lies listlessly. His leukaemia is advanced and he is not responding to treatment, says Dr Bayou, because the dose isn't strong enough.

Next door, six-year-old Melak is doing better. She too has leukaemia and is recovering from a severe lung infection. Doctors found anti-fungal drugs to treat her after a desperate search - the last medicine of its kind in all Benghazi. Without it, she would now be dead.

It is not just cancer drugs that are running out in Benghazi's hospitals.

Shelves are rapidly being cleared of what medical supplies are left, rebel officials say

Dr Barakat, a Libyan doctor who returned from London to take up the post of health minister in the rebels' interim government, says the situation is critical.

The list of 150 items needed urgently include surgical gloves and gauze as well as a whole array of drugs needed for cardiac patients and, critically, in the intensive care units.

At the Hawari General Hospital, director Dr Ezzedin Benomran is at his wits' end.

He reckons that more than 20 patients have died since February because of the lack of medical supplies.

Stocks of the narcotics needed for anaesthetic procedures are so low that the hospital has had to close nine of its 12 operating theatres.

The surgeons only operate on emergency cases - four a day - and many of those are patients with serious gunshot wounds, transferred to Benghazi from the front line in Misrata.

Cash shortage

Dr Barakat says here is little left over for women who need caesarean sections, or casualties from car accidents or other domestic accidents.

In any case, he adds, the amounts donated by foreign governments and NGOs cannot meet the demands of all the hospitals in a large city like Benghazi, which services the entire population of eastern Libya.

Medical stocks were already low in February. Now they have been run down in some cases almost to zero, he says.

Critically wounded fighters are among those requiring scant hospital resources

"We have only 2-3 weeks' supply of cancer drugs," said Dr Barakat. "They used to be allocated to us from a central point in Tripoli. We have no access to that now."

The rebel leadership says it would willingly pay for new supplies if only it had the money, but its stock of cash has also run out.

A week ago rebel leaders appealed to the outside world to help unlock funds and loans to sort out the cash flow problem and avoid a social and medical crisis in the city.

A week on - according to senior sources in the leadership - there is still no sign of any cash being made available.

Dr Barakat says this is only one of his worries.

So far the hospitals are just about keeping afloat, despite the shortages. But if there were to be any new pressure on the system, he fears it could break it.

"If Tripoli falls tomorrow, we will have major crisis," he said.

"If there are new mass casualties on the front line here in the east because of an assault on Brega and Ras Lanuf there will be too.

"I am worried because any time the army moves forward and there are mass casualties, I am sure we will not be able to cope."

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Afghan central bank chief flees

28 June 2011 Last updated at 10:59 GMT Mr Fitrat has left Afghanistan for the US The governor of Afghanistan's central bank, Abdul Qadeer Fitrat, has resigned and fled the country, saying his life is in danger for investigating fraud.

He said the government had interfered in his efforts to pursue those responsible for corruption at the privately-owned Kabul Bank.

Mr Fitrat was speaking from the US where he has residency. He says he will not return to Afghanistan.

An Afghan government spokesman said the resignation amounted to treason.

Waheed Omar, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's spokesman, also added that Mr Fitrat was himself under investigation.

"My life was completely in danger and this was particularly true after I spoke to the parliament and exposed some people who are responsible for the crisis of Kabul Bank," Mr Fitrat said on Monday.

The embezzlement at Kabul Bank, Afghanistan's largest private bank, almost led to its collapse last year after it was discovered that hundreds of millions of dollars had gone missing. The bank handles up to 80% of the government payroll, including salaries for policemen and teachers.

A run on the bank was only avoided by the injection of massive amounts of public funds and government guarantees.

'Investigation blocked'

Investigators say that the bank made hundreds of millions of dollars of inappropriate loans. It was founded in 2004 by Sherkhan Farnood, a leading international poker player.

The bank was bailed out in September, which is when the central bank also took control of its finances. Mr Fitrat, as president of the central bank, was in charge of an investigation into what went wrong.

Continue reading the main story 2004: Kabul Bank founded by international poker player, Sherkhan FarnoodSeptember 2010: Kabul Bank taken over by the central bank after a run on the bank amid fears of its collapseFebruary 2011: Abdul Qadeer Fitrat, central bank governor, tells BBC those involved in bank's woes should be prosecutedFebruary 2011: An IMF report recommends the bank be put in receivershipApril 2011: Mr Fitrat, names in parliament prominent Afghan figures in connection with the Kabul Bank scandalMay 2011: Report by anti-corruption office shows $467m (?290m) of outstanding loans were made without appropriate collateralAs the crisis at Kabul Bank unfolded, President Karzai pledged to fully investigate those involved in the crisis.

But Mr Fitrat alleges that the central government did not assist him in the investigation or provide any help in recovering the bank's assets.

"During [the] last 10 months during Kabul Bank crisis, I continuously pressed for the creation of a special prosecution, for the creation of a special tribunal to investigate and prosecute those who were involved in Kabul Bank's fraud," he told the BBC.

"I did not receive any information that there is a credible plan to prosecute, to investigate and prosecute these individuals. The high political authorities of the country was responsible [for blocking] these efforts," he alleged.

He said he left the country after he received information that his life was in danger from "credible sources".

In April, Mr Fitrat publicly named in parliament high-profile figures who were allegedly involved in the near collapse of the bank.

Relatives of President Karzai, including his brother, Mahmoud Karzai, were among those named in connection with the scandal. Mr Fitrat also implicated the brother of Vice-President Qasim Fahim.

Both men - who were major shareholders in the bank - deny the charges. They say they are being targeted because of their position

'Foreign advisers' Kabul Bank was taken over by the Afghan central bank in September 2010

President Karzai has said Afghanistan lacks the necessary banking experience to oversee the institution and has blamed foreign advisers for the crisis.

He has also pledged to ensure that those responsible are subject to criminal investigations.

The International Monetary Fund wants the Afghan government to wind down Kabul Bank before it releases the funds for a new assistance programme. A recent IMF report said the bank should be placed in receivership.

Britain has already suspended a $140m (?85.6m) payment in aid to the country following the crisis.

"We take note of Governor Fitrat's decision to step down as central bank governor," IMF spokesman Raphael Anspach is quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying.

"We look forward to continue discussing with his successor ways to improve the Afghan banking system in the period ahead."

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Raging fire closes Los Alamos lab

28 June 2011 Last updated at 14:36 GMT Doug Tucker, Los Alamos fire chief: "We're doing our best to keep it off the lab"

One of the top nuclear weapons research facilities in the US will remain closed until Thursday as fire fighters battle a wildfire raging at its boundary.

Only "essential-duties" staff at Los Alamos National Laboratory will be permitted on site on Wednesday.

Officials at the New Mexico facility have said they detected "no off-site releases of contamination".

The town outside the laboratory in the state of New Mexico was evacuated on Monday as the fire raged nearby.

Officials said the nuclear facilities faced "no immediate threat" but warned of damage to houses.

The lab, opened during World War II, led the development of the atomic bomb.

By late Monday, the Las Conchas fire had grown to 68 sq miles (176 sq km), burning through forests, canyons, and mesas, fuelled by dry timber and powered by strong winds.

Authorities warned it could triple in size in the coming days, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

The fire had reached the lab's southwestern boundary and leapt a state road onto the land, burning roughly an acre, state fire officials said.

"No facilities face immediate threat, and all nuclear and hazardous materials are accounted for and protected," officials said in a statement.

Officials described the evacuation of the town of Los Alamos as orderly and calm

The lab employs about 11,800 people, and about 12,000 people live in the town of Los Alamos.

"That's the biggest threat we have right now to homes in the community," Deputy Los Alamos County Fire Chief Mike Thompson told the Associated Press.

The southwestern US has been stricken by giant wildfires this year, with millions of acres scorched in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas.

To the west of New Mexico, the largest wildfire in the history of the state of Arizona has been burning for nearly a month.

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Universities to fight for places

28 June 2011 Last updated at 17:02 GMT By Sean Coughlan BBC News education correspondent University students are to be promised more information and consumer power Universities in England will have to compete against each other and private providers for a quarter of their student places.

Universities Minister David Willetts has published plans to increase market forces in higher education in England.

Promising to put "students in the driving seat", he also announced there would be 20,000 places reserved for degrees with fees less than ?7,500.

Labour's Gareth Thomas said that it was "expansion on the cheap".

He told MPs that this was a "desperate drive to cut fees, no matter what the cost to quality".

The controversial plan to create extra places for privately-funded individuals has also resurfaced - on the basis that it will be restricted to those sponsored by a business or a charity.

There are also proposals to allow students to make an early repayment on their loans - a politically sensitive suggestion which raises the prospect of better-off students not paying as much as those who pay back their loans over several decades.

Private providers

Mr Willetts said the reform package would "open up the system" and "put power where it belongs - in the hands of students".

The White Paper, called Students at the Heart of the System, brings forward plans to make universities bid for a proportion of their places - and a higher proportion than had been anticipated.

This raises the prospect that some universities will lose student places - and Mr Willetts said that no government could offer a guarantee that courses or even institutions might not close as a result.

Continue reading the main story Universities to compete for extra places for pupils with AAB grades at A-level20,000 places reserved for degrees with fees of ?7,500 or lessUniversities will have to publish information about students' employment chances and salariesInspections triggered if concerns raised about teaching standardsStudent charter setting out consumer rightsWider role for private sector colleges and partnershipsFewer restrictions on "university" titleConsidering options on early loan repaymentsThis proportion of universities bidding for places is "just the start", said Mr Willetts. "We want to extend the system so more places are contestable."

From 2012, universities will be able to compete against each other in bidding for 65,000 places for students achieving AAB grades at A-level or better - rather than simply being allocated quotas, as they are now.

This will mean that universities, if they want to expand, can offer an unlimited number of places to students getting these grades, drawing them away from what might have been a second choice institution.

But this is likely to have only a marginal impact on most universities. According to an analysis by the 1994 Group of universities, the majority of universities have fewer than 5% of students with these grades.

There will also be 20,000 places allocated on the basis of "good quality" and "value for money" at institutions charging an average of?7,500 or less per year.

Since a high proportion of university degree courses are above this level, these places could be taken by an expanded private sector or courses provided through further education colleges.

Sir Steve Smith, president of Universities UK, warned that only allowing universities charging these lower fees to bid for these places "must not undermine the quality of the higher education system".

University title

In terms of improving social mobility, there had been discussion of changing the admissions system to allow applications after students knew their exam results - which previous official reports had recommended as fairer.

But a decision on this - so-called "post qualification application" - will not be considered until a review reports back next year.

The Bridge Group, a think-tank promoting social mobility through higher education, warned the White Paper could have a "negative impact" on social mobility in the long-term.

The White Paper also promises to reduce barriers to private providers entering higher education.

This includes a review of the use of the term "university" as a title.

There will also be an emphasis on improving the information available to students.

Last week the Higher Education Funding Council for England announced that universities would have to publish key information about courses, such as the average salary of former students, the cost of accommodation, teaching hours and satisfaction ratings from previous students.

The funding council will itself have a new role as a "consumer champion" for students.

There will also be plans for inspections to be triggered if there are concerns about the quality of courses or teaching standards.

But students were unimpressed by the plans.

Aaron Porter, president of the National Union of Students said: "Fees have been tripled and students have been exposed to the potential chaos of the market and yet there are still no concrete proposals for how quality, accountability and access will be improved."

The president of Oxford University Student Union, David Barclay, had earlier said: "Dressing up the White Paper with the language of student choice is like putting lipstick on a pig... Education is not a commodity to be bought and sold."

John Denham, the shadow business secretary, earlier dismissed the government's plan, saying: "It's a shambles, they're making it up as they go along."

He argued that the White Paper was an attempt by the government to get itself "off the hook" after universities set tuition fees at a higher level than expected.

Lecturers also attacked the proposals as an attempt by the government to recover from having lost control of fee levels.

"Trying to force down the cost of a degree after the government got its sums wrong will not solve the funding crisis it created," said Sally Hunt, leader of the University and College Union.

Competition on price will not affect Scottish students in Scotland's universities where there are no tuition fees. In Wales there are plans for Welsh students at Welsh universities to receive a subsidy covering increased tuition fees.

A decision on tuition fees and support for students at Northern Ireland's universities is expected in the autumn.

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Suu Kyi actress barred from Burma

28 June 2011 Last updated at 05:57 GMT By Vaudine England BBC News, Bangkok Michelle Yeoh stars as pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a new film, The Lady The actress who plays the part of Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a forthcoming film has been barred from entering Burma.

Michelle Yeoh, a former Bond girl, tried to enter the country on 22 June but was deported on the same day.

An official told reporters that Michelle Yeoh was now blacklisted and would not be able to enter Burma.

She has visited Burma before - in December, she met the Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

"She did not have the chance to enter Myanmar (Burma) again. She was deported straight away on the first flight after arriving at Yangon (Rangoon) International Airport," a Burmese official said.

Ms Yeoh has previously travelled to Burma with Aung San Suu Kyi's son, Kim Aris, who was allowed into the country earlier this month to mark his mother's 66th birthday.

'The Lady'

Ms Yeoh portrays Aung San Suu Kyi's life in a forthcoming film, The Lady.

Directed by Luc Besson it will be released later this year.

Michelle Yeoh, a 48-year old Malaysian actress, played a Chinese spy alongside Pierce Brosnan in the James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies.

She also starred in Ang Lee's martial arts movie, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

Aung San Suu Kyi recently gave the BBC's annual Reith Lectures in which she explored what freedom means, and described the meaning that Buddhism has given to her lonely political struggle.

In 1990, Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won the Burmese election by a landslide.

She then spent 15 of the next 20 years under house arrest, and was finally released last November, a week after military-controlled elections marked what the government says is a return to civilian rule.

Quite what is in the movie of her life remains a mystery - but blacklisting the actress portraying it seems clumsy - and an unlikely way to dim interest in its screening.

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Clashes after River's relegation

27 June 2011 Last updated at 09:11 GMT Police used water cannon to disperse River Plate fans at the end of the match

Dozens of people have been injured in clashes that broke out in Buenos Aires after Argentina's legendary football club River Plate were relegated to the second division.

The violence erupted inside the stadium. Street battles between angry fans and police continued outside.

River needed to win by two clear goals against Belgrano de Cordoba, but only managed a 1-1 draw.

This meant that River dropped to the country's B league for the first time.

The match, held in River's Monumental stadium, had to be abandoned in the final minute, amid chaotic scenes.

River Plate's fate seemed sealed after Mariano Pavone missed a penalty

Police fired water cannon up into the stands, following a pitch invasion by furious River fans.

Players from both teams had to be escorted off the field.

The violence continued after the game, with clashes outside the stadium between hardcore fans and helmeted riot police, as helicopters hovered overhead.

Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas, and also deployed mounted units to try to disperse the fans, who threw rocks and set fire to vehicles and rubbish bins.

At least 65 people were hurt, among them more than 20 police officers, according to Argentine media.

In all, more than 2,000 police had been deployed before the game in an unparalleled security operation for a club game.

Tears

The game itself was a fiercely fought contest. River had gone 1-0 up within the first five minutes.

Continue reading the main story

"From hope and euphoria to sadness and violence" - Clarin, Argentina

"River Plate: 110 years of glory and a day of infinite sadness" - Telam, Argentina

A football game saw the Monumental (stadium) go from hope to senselessness in 90 minutes - La Nacion, Argentina

"Like a true Argentine tango, River's last three seasons end in tragedy" - Gazeta Esportiva, Brazil

"A giant falls, setting off a roar that reverberates around the world" - El Pais, Uruguay

"Drama of the 'millionaires': it is as if Real Madrid were relegated - El Pais, Spain

"The nightmare has come true...League B is no longer a spectre but a harsh reality" -La Gazzetta dello Sport - Italy

But they saw their lead slip in the second half, after a Belgrano goal.

Then the man who had scored River's goal, Mariano Pavone, had a penalty saved, to the stunned reaction of more than 50,000 home fans. And that effectively sealed their fate.

By the end of the game, some of their players were in tears.

River, which has won more domestic titles than any other club (33), was one of only three never to have dropped out of the first division.

Many commentators have described it as a drop into the "abyss".

Argentina's press reacted to the result with disbelief.

The national daily, Clarin, wrote: "No-one, absolutely no-one, will be able to forget this day."

It said while Belgrano had been the "executioner", they did not bear most of the responsibility for River's fate.

And it added that "even the poor refereeing... and the management errors" that had helped bring the club to this point did not justify the incidents at the end of the game.

"Incredible but real" was the headline in the sports paper, Ole.

It flagged up the fact that River's descent has been presided over by one of its all-time greatest players - Daniel Passarella, the club's current president.

Police were among the injured in the troubles that marred the match

In recent weeks, River's fans have reacted angrily to a string of poor results, demanding his resignation.

It has been a steep fall from grace for Passarella, the man who captained Argentina's World Cup winning squad in 1978.

He was idolised by River's supporters when he played for club.

River's decline on the pitch has been mirrored by financial problems.

The club is currently carrying an estimated $19m (?12m) of debts.

This could mean River is forced to sell off several players.

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Who hates all the pi? 'Tau Day' celebrated instead

28 June 2011 Last updated at 08:46 GMT By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News Fans of tau suggest it makes more sense than pi when describing fractions of a circle The mathematical constant pi is under threat from a group of detractors who will be marking "Tau Day" on Tuesday.

Tau Day revellers suggest a constant called tau should take its place: twice as large as pi, or about 6.28 - hence the 28 June celebration.

Tau proponents say that for many problems in maths, tau makes more sense and makes calculations easier.

Not all fans of maths agree, however, and pi's rich history means it will be a difficult number to unseat.

"I like to describe myself as the world's leading anti-pi propagandist," said Michael Hartl, an educator and former theoretical physicist.

"When I say pi is wrong, it doesn't have any flaws in its definition - it is what you think it is, a ratio of circumference to diameter. But circles are not about diameters, they're about radii; circles are the set of all the points a given distance - a radius - from the centre," Dr Hartl explained to BBC News.

By defining pi in terms of diameter, he said, "what you're really doing is defining it as the ratio of the circumference to twice the radius, and that factor of two haunts you throughout mathematics."

The discrepancy is most noticeable when circles are defined not as a number of degrees, but as what are known as radians - of which there are two times pi in a full circle. With tau, half a circle is one-half tau.

Dr Hartl reckons people still use degrees as a measure of angle because pi's involvement in radians makes them too unwieldy.

He credits Bob Palais of the University of Utah with first pointing out that "pi is wrong", in a 2001 article in the Mathematical Intelligencer.

But it is Dr Hartl who is responsible for the Tau Manifesto - calling tau the more convenient formulation and instituting Tau Day to celebrate it.

Kevin Houston, a mathematician from the University of Leeds, counts himself as a convert.

"It was one of the weirdest things I'd come across, but it makes sense," he told BBC News.

"It's surprising people haven't changed before. Almost anything you can do in maths with pi you can do with tau anyway, but when it comes to using pi versus tau, tau wins - it's much more natural."

Dr Hartl is passionate about the effort, but even he is surprised by the fervent nature of some tau adherents.

"What's amazing is the 'conversion experience': people find themselves almost violently angry at pi. They feel like they've been lied to their whole lives, so it's amazing how many people express their displeasure with pi in the strongest possible terms - often involving profanity.

"I don't condone any actual violence - that would be really bizarre, wouldn't it?"

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Boycott at new Turkish parliament

28 June 2011 Last updated at 14:43 GMT The swearing-in ceremony went ahead Opposition parties in Turkey have boycotted the swearing-in of the new parliament after judges barred nine elected MPs from taking their seats.

The biggest opposition party, the secular CHP, joined pro-Kurdish members in shunning the swearing-in ceremony at the parliament in Ankara.

The ruling AKP won this month's polls but is under pressure to consult the opposition on big policy decisions.

One such decision is the drafting of a new constitution.

The election was widely praised as a sign of Turkey's political maturity but Tuesday's boycott has exposed old fault-lines that still threaten the country's democratic development, the BBC's Jonathan Head reports from Istanbul.

Threat to stability

A series of judicial decisions stripped one MP of his seat and barred eight others from attending parliament because they were in prison, on charges that critics say are politically motivated.

Continue reading the main story

We cannot talk about democracy in a country where judges base their decisions on the government's interest, not universal principles of justice”

End Quote Kemal Kilicdaroglu CHP leader The opposition parties argue that the jailed MPs are entitled to parliamentary immunity because they are still on trial and have not been convicted.

CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu accused the judges of favouring the government.

"We cannot talk about democracy in a country where judges base their decisions on the government's interest, not universal principles of justice," he said.

The CHP won 135 seats in the 550-seat parliament.

The pro-Kurdish BDP refused even to attend the opening session of parliament, after the election board transferred one of the 36 seats it had won to the AKP.

The MP who lost his seat had been convicted of making statements supporting the Kurdish insurgent movement, the PKK, something all BDP candidates did during the campaign.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised the opposition parties for nominating jailed candidates.

"Could they not have found other candidates?" he asked on Monday. "They nominated these people knowing that it would cause such a problem."

A continued boycott by the BDP could re-ignite the conflict in the Kurdish south-east, our correspondent says.

The CHP boycott will also make it difficult for Mr Erdogan to start working on the new constitution, which he has called the top priority of his government.

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Ai Weiwei is ordered to pay $1.9m

28 June 2011 Last updated at 15:31 GMT Ai Weiwei is prohibited from speaking publicly, but his family deny he dodged taxes China's authorities are demanding that artist Ai Weiwei pay more than 12m yuan ($1.9m, ?1.2m) in unpaid taxes and fines, one of his friends says.

Mr Ai is one of China's leading artists, and the most prominent figure caught up in a recent crackdown on critics of the Communist Party.

He was released last week after being detained at a secret detention centre for 80 days.

His family has insisted he is being targeted for his political activism.

Beijing's Tax Bureau claims Ai Weiwei owes 4.85m yuan in unpaid taxes, and insists he must pay an additional fine of 7.3m.

Liu Xiaoyuan, a lawyer and close friend of the artist, says he saw the letter with the demand after it was delivered on Monday. Mr Ai must respond within three days, he added.

There was an international outcry when police seized Ai Weiwei and held him incommunicado.

The authorities released him last week, saying he had admitted tax evasion.

The terms of Ai Weiwei's bail prevent him from speaking out publicly, so it has been left to his family to deny that he evaded tax.

They say the tax demand covers the past 10 years, according to reports.

They want to know why the issues are being raised only now, and insist the company involved in the tax affair is not controlled by Mr Ai, but his wife.

Broader crackdown

His mother believes the artist is being persecuted, because the authorities want to silence him and stop his political activism.

In recent weeks more than 100 other prominent activists, human rights lawyers, and internet bloggers have been targeted in a crackdown launched by China's communist leaders.

Human rights groups say it is the most grave silencing of voices of dissent in China since the Tiananmen massacre more than 20 years ago.

The trigger for the crackdown appeared to be anonymous calls on the internet for Chinese people to stage a popular revolution for democracy, like those sweeping North Africa and the Middle East.

A number of others, detained at the same time as Ai Weiwei, have also been freed. They include Mr Ai's driver, accountant, assistant and a designer.

Last Sunday the human rights activist Hu Jia, imprisoned for three and a half years, was released too.

In the past Ai Weiwei has exhibited his work in London, New York and Berlin. He designed the Bird's Nest stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

But he also became an outspoken critic on a number of national scandals, including the deaths of students in shoddily built schools in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and the harm done to children by tainted infant formula.

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Libya rejects ICC arrest warrant

27 June 2011 Last updated at 21:10 GMT The ICC said it had grounds to believe Col Gaddafi had ordered attacks on Libyan civilians Libya has rejected a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for the arrest of Col Muammar Gaddafi, saying the tribunal has no authority.

The ICC earlier accused the Libyan leader of crimes against humanity.

The court had grounds to believe he had ordered attacks on civilians during Libya's four-month uprising, it said.

The Hague-based court also issued warrants for two of Col Gaddafi's top aides - his son Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanussi.

Thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the conflict.

Anti-Gaddafi forces said on Monday they had launched a new push towards Tripoli, with heavy fighting near the strategic town of Bir al-Ghanam, to the south-west of capital.

The rebel defence minister told the BBC that forces opposed to Col Gaddafi may also make a move on the capital from the east.

'Unquestioned control'

Libya's justice minister said Libya did not accept the ICC's decision to call for Col Gaddafi's arrest.

Continue reading the main story Bridget Kendall BBC News, Benghazi

This is in some way Libya's 'Wild East': Since the uprising began in February, Benghazi has become a city stocked with arms and a population of young men eager to let off exuberant volleys at the slightest provocation. But there was real passion in their reaction to the ICC's announcement.

Many in the rebels' eastern stronghold seem impatient to see their former leader brought to justice, not just for his attempts to crush their uprising, but also for what they remember as brutal oppression by his regime for more than 40 years. And many appear to be increasingly optimistic that it could happen soon.

The rebel leadership says there is still a plan to advance on Tripoli from all sides, squeeze Col Gaddafi's supporters, and undermine him through uprisings from within the city. But they also seem to be hoping they can avoid a final military showdown, and instead force the Libyan leader out of office without more bloodshed.

Mohammad al-Qamoodi told a Tripoli news conference the court was "a tool of the Western world to prosecute leaders in the third world".

He added: "The leader of the revolution and his son do not hold any official position in the Libyan government and therefore they have no connection to the claims of the ICC against them."

The warrants refer to early weeks of the uprising, from 15 February until "at least 28 February".

There were "reasonable grounds to believe" that the three men were "criminally responsible" for the murder and persecution of civilians, said a statement read out by the ICC's presiding judge, Sanji Monageng.

Col Gaddafi had absolute and unquestioned control over Libya as its undisputed leader, and had introduced a policy to quell civilian demonstrations by any means, including by the use of force, said the court.

While Saif al-Islam Gaddafi held no official position in Libya, he was "the most influential person" in Col Gaddafi's inner circle, it added.

Mr Sanussi, said the court, had "directly instructed the troops to attack civilians demonstrating" in Benghazi, the city that has become the rebels' stronghold.

The warrants had been requested by chief ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo in May, to protect Libyan civilians.

There was celebratory gunfire in the streets of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi and the besieged city of Misrata as the news emerged.

Continue reading the main story Issued against Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and Abdullah al-Senussi For alleged criminal responsibility for the commission of murder and persecution as crimes against humanity from 15 February 2011 onwards Charges relate to actions of Libyan State apparatus and security forces in Tripoli, Benghazi, Misrata and elsewhere in LibyaThe rebel Transitional National Council's Ibrahim Dabbashi welcomed the decision, saying people close to Col Gaddafi should now urge him to step down.

"Those who are working with Gaddafi now… know that they are working with at least a suspected criminal, if they don't believe that he is a criminal," Mr Dabbashi, a former Libyan ambassador to the UN, told the BBC's Newshour programme.

"I think they have to convince Gaddafi to step down and to try to safe his life and the lives of his family."

On the military front, meanwhile, the rebels advanced some six miles (10km) towards Tripoli on Monday, says the BBC's Mark Doyle on the front line about 40 miles south-west of the capital.

The fighting was taking place on a plain of rock and sand between Bir al-Ghanem and Bir Ayyad a few miles to the south, with shells whistling overhead in both directions and plumes of smoke and sand rising into the air, he says.

The rebels seemed better armed in this strategic area than elsewhere in the country, adds our correspondent, who saw several pick-up trucks full of rebel soldiers - in clean uniforms and new-looking rocket launchers and rifles - heading for the front line.

The ICC announcement came as the international air operation in Libya, aimed at protecting civilians, entered its 100th day.

It was welcomed by Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, as well as the governments of Nato allies France, the UK and the US.

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Pakistan drone attacks 'kill 15'

28 June 2011 Last updated at 08:13 GMT Two US drone missile attacks have killed at least 15 people in the Pakistani tribal region bordering Afghanistan, officials say.

Twelve people were killed when a drone fired two missiles at a compound used by suspected militants in North Waziristan on Monday night, they added.

Earlier on Monday, another drone fired two missiles at a vehicle in North Waziristan, killing three people.

North Waziristan has been targeted by drone strikes for months.

The US says the region is home to several militant groups involved in attacks on Nato forces in Afghanistan.

On Monday night, drone missiles targeted a compound at the foot of a hill in the thickly-forested Mantoi area, some 40km (24 miles) north-west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan.

The compound was being used by local militants affiliated with Hakimullah Mehsud's Tehrik-e Taliban group, officials said.

Earlier, three people were killed and two others injured when a drone fired two missiles at a vehicle which was travelling into Afghanistan in the Shawal region of North Waziristan.

Wazir tribespeople inhabit both sides of the border here and frequently move across the border.

But officials told BBC that those killed in the strike were militants. It is not clear which group they belonged to.

Drone attacks have focused on North and South Waziristan, where US officials believe many al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters find shelter.

Pakistan publicly criticises drone attacks, saying they fuel support for militants. But observers say the authorities privately condone the strikes.

The American military does not routinely confirm drone operations, but analysts say the US is the only force capable of deploying such aircraft in the region.

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Tepco faces shareholder protests

28 June 2011 Last updated at 10:32 GMT There has been growing anger over the way Tepco has handled the Fukushima Daiichi radiation crisis Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) faced the wrath of shareholders at its first annual meeting since the 11 March earthquake and tsunami.

One motion called for the company to abandon nuclear energy in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis, although this was defeated.

Tepco may have to pay compensation of almost $100bn (?63bn) following radiation leaks at its nuclear plant.

Tepco shares have plunged 85% since the tsunami damaged the Fukushima plant.

The disaster caused a meltdown at three of the six reactors, and more than three months on radioactive material continues to leak from the facility.

Shareholders have criticised Tepco's management for their slow response to the crisis, accusing them of putting out inaccurate data and displaying a lack of transparency.

Some 80,000 residents living close to the plant have been forced to abandon their properties.

Executives at the meeting in Tokyo issued an apology amid angry shouts and heckling by shareholders.

One shareholder said the senior executives should commit suicide by jumping into the damaged reactors.

"All of us directors apologise deeply for the troubles and fears that the accident has caused. We're working to resolve this crisis as quickly as possible," said Tepco chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata.

Tepco has said it hoped to achieve a cold shutdown of the plant by January next year.

Earthquake risk

The biggest debate among shareholders revolved around the future of nuclear energy and what the company's stand on the issue should be.

Opponents failed to win enough support for a motion that would have forced Tepco to scrap all reactors and halt any construction of new ones.

They said nuclear power did not have a feasible future, not least because of the ongoing Fukushima nuclear crisis.

"Japan has a lot of earthquakes and after this accident I just don't think there is such a thing as safe nuclear power here," said one shareholder, Takako Kameoka.

Japan relies on nuclear power for 30% of its electricity needs.

Although thousands of those present at the six-hour meeting supported the motion, the institutional shareholders that own most of the stock were not swayed, and the motion was defeated.

Analysts said that the current power shortage in Japan was proof that the country needed nuclear power in order to meet its energy demands.

"The question is, can Japan do without nuclear power?" said Mitsushige Akino, of Ichiyoshi Investment Management Company.

"How much are the Japanese people willing to sacrifice in terms of standard of living? The sentiment is understandable, but the reality is that this is difficult without considerable sacrifice to economic growth and activity."

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Aubry bid for French Socialists

28 June 2011 Last updated at 11:09 GMT Ms Aubry (left) took over the party soon after the 2007 defeat Martine Aubry has announced she will compete to be the Socialist candidate for the 2012 French presidential election.

Ms Aubry, party leader and daughter of former European Commission President Jacques Delors, declared her bid in the city of Lille, where she is mayor.

Bids for the party ticket close in July, with a vote in the autumn.

The Socialists last held France's top political office in 1995 under the late Francois Mitterrand.

The current conservative President, Nicolas Sarkozy, is widely expected to stand for re-election, boosted by the elimination of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who had been tipped as the Socialists' best hope before being sidelined by sexual assault allegations in May.

Other likely contenders for the Socialist candidacy, which will be decided at primary elections in October, include former party leader Francois Hollande and Segolene Royal, who was defeated by Mr Sarkozy at the 2007 election.

'A taste for the future'

Within France, Ms Aubry is best known for introducing the country's 35-hour work week when she was employment minister under Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin in the late 1990s.

"I want to restore France's strength, its calm and its unity," Ms Aubry said in Lille.

"I want to give a taste for the future and a desire for a common destiny back to everyone."

She condemned the policies of Mr Sarkozy, saying they were orientated towards benefiting "the most privileged".

Nominations for the Socialist primaries close on 13 July.

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US supports Lagarde to head IMF

28 June 2011 Last updated at 14:08 GMT Christine Lagarde also has the backing of Russia Christine Lagarde has taken a step closer to becoming the new head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after her candidacy was formally backed by the US.

The move by the US comes as the IMF's 24-strong board is meeting to agree on its new managing director.

Analysts say Ms Lagarde is now all but certain to beat her rival candidate, Mexico's Central Bank Governor Agustin Carstens.

The IMF has always had a European head.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said: "Minister Lagarde's exceptional talent and broad experience will provide invaluable leadership for this indispensable institution at a critical time for the global economy."

Ms Lagarde also secured the support of Russia on Tuesday. She has already been backed by China and Europe.

Mr Carstens is being supported by Latin American nations, plus Canada and Australia.

In a convention dating back to the establishment of the IMF and the World Bank after World War II, a European has always held the top job at the IMF, while an American leads the World Bank.

However, the countries backing Mr Carstens have argued that it is time the IMF was led by a non-European.

The vacancy at the top of the IMF came after former managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn was forced to resign last month after he was arrested in New York on charges of sexual assault.

Mr Strauss-Kahn denies the charges.

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Dutch MPs target ritual slaughter

28 June 2011 Last updated at 16:58 GMT Muslim and Jewish communities said the legislation infringed on their religious freedom The Dutch lower house of parliament has passed a law effectively banning the ritual slaughter of animals, in a move condemned by Muslim and Jewish groups.

The legislation states that all animals must be stunned before being killed.

But the Islamic dhabiha and Jewish shechita methods of ritual slaughter require them to be fully conscious.

The legislation was proposed by an animal rights party with two MPs, which argued that failing to stun the animals subjected them to unnecessary pain.

But debate over the matter swiftly became a focus of animosity towards the Netherlands' 1.2 million-strong Muslim community. The country's Jewish population is comparatively small at 50,000.

Following months of debate a last minute concession was offered - the Muslim and Jewish communities will have a year to provide evidence that animals slaughtered by traditional methods do not experience greater pain than those that are stunned before they are killed.

However, observers say finding such proof will be virtually impossible.

The bill must still be approved by the upper house of parliament before it can become law.

Religious freedom

Before Tuesday's vote, the head of the Party for the Animals, Marianne Thieme, denied the bill was an attack on religious minorities.

She argued the law was necessary because scientists agreed that animals suffered pain or fear if they were not stunned before slaughter, and because current regulations allowed exceptions for ritual slaughter.

Continue reading the main story

One of the first measures taken during the Occupation [by Nazi Germany during World War II] was the closing of kosher abattoirs”

End Quote Binyomin Jacobs Dutch Chief Rabbi "If you stun an animal before it's been killed, the animal won't experience its own death," she told the BBC World Service. "If you have new techniques to ensure there's no unnecessary suffering then you have to use it."

"Three-thousand years ago, there were no anaesthetics," she added. "But since then we have developed more humane methods."

In a rare show of unity, the Muslim and Jewish communities condemned the legislation and said it infringed on their religious freedom.

"One of the first measures taken during the Occupation [by Nazi Germany during World War II] was the closing of kosher abattoirs," Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs told MPs during a debate in The Hague.

"If we no longer have people who can do ritual slaughter in the Netherlands, we will stop eating meat," he added.

The Party for the Animals said two million animals were subjected to ritual slaughter every year in the Netherlands, although the organisation Halal Correct said only 250,000 were killed without being stunned beforehand.

To make meat kosher for Jews or halal for Muslims, animals must be slaughtered while still awake, by swiftly cutting the main arteries and veins in their necks with sharp knives, and then allowing the blood to drain out.

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Forsyte Saga actress Tyzack dies

28 June 2011 Last updated at 15:04 GMT Margaret Tyzack played Antonia in I, Claudius Actress Margaret Tyzack has died after a brief illness, her agent has said.

The 79-year-old made her name in the Forsyte Saga and recently appeared in BBC One soap opera EastEnders, but had to withdraw after a short stint.

Her agent said Tyzack, who is thought to have had cancer, "died peacefully at home" on Saturday with her family by her side.

A statement issued by her agent said the actress "will be greatly missed by her family and friends".

It said she will be remembered for "her outstanding contribution to the world of theatre, film and television and for the support and inspiration she gave to young actors".

"Maggie faced her illness with the strength, courage, dignity and even humour with which she lived her life," it said.

Margaret Tyzack was made a CBE in July 2010

Brian Blessed, who starred with Tyzack in I, Claudius, told the BBC: "She was one of the most natural and great actresses of our times and also one of the greatest actresses I've ever worked with.

"She completed a huge array of work over the years in TV, film and theatre and it's such a terrible loss. She should have been made a Dame 10 times over."

Michael Grandage directed her in The Chalk Garden three years ago.

"I was fortunate enough to work with Margaret Tyzack at the Donmar where, according to many critics, she gave one of the greatest performances of her career in The Chalk Garden," he told the BBC.

"She brought an extraordinary depth to the role as well as her impeccable comic timing. There was a lot of herself invested in Mrs St Maugham - a lack of sentimentality, a great pragmatism, incredible loyalty and a huge heart. We will all miss her."

Tyzack, who was awarded the CBE last year, was best-known for her classical stage roles and won numerous awards for her stage work including two Oliviers and a Tony.

The actress landed the role of Winifred, Soames's sister, in The Forsyte Saga in 1967.

The programme became so popular vicars complained it affected attendance at Sunday evening services.

Tyzack also played Sir Derek Jacobi's mother Antonia in Roman saga I, Claudius.

'An inspiration'

She won a Tony award in 1991 for her role opposite Dame Maggie Smith in Lettice and Lovage and was seen at the National Theatre in 2009 alongside Dame Helen Mirren in Phedre.

Tyzak appeared briefly in EastEnders as Janine's grandmother

In April, it was announced that Tyzack was to join EastEnders to play Lydia Simmonds, the maternal grandmother of Albert Square regular Janine Butcher.

Bryan Kirkwood, executive producer of EastEnders, said: "I'm so sad to hear the tragic news about Margaret.

"Even though we only worked together for a brief time, Margaret made a great impact with EastEnders. She was a fabulous actress and an inspiration to us all and she will be sorely missed.

Our thoughts are with her family."

Film roles

Tyzack won an Olivier award for best actress for her performance as Martha in the National Theatre's revival of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf in 1981.

In 2008, she picked up another Olivier for her role as the eccentric Mrs St Maugham in Grandage's revival of Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden at the Donmar Warehouse in London with Penelope Wilton.

After her Olivier win, she spoke out about the lack of roles for older women in theatre and television.

She also appeared in several films including Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange and Woody Allen's Match Point.

Her other TV credits include Midsomer Murders, Rosemary and Thyme, Doc Martin and Quatermass.

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Severe drought in Horn of Africa

28 June 2011 Last updated at 14:31 GMT The drought has forced thousands to cross borders, like these Somalis in Dadaab, Kenya Some parts of the Horn of Africa have been hit by the worst drought in 60 years, the UN says.

More than 10 million people are thought to be affected across the region.

The UN now classifies large areas of Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya as a crisis or an emergency.

Charity Save the Children says drought and war in Somalia has led to unprecedented numbers fleeing across the border into Kenya, with about 1,300 people arriving every day.

Three camps at Dadaab, just inside Kenya, are home to well over 350,000 people, but they were built to hold just 90,000 and are severely overcrowded.

A prolonged failure of rains, which began in late 2010, is now taking its toll.

The UN's Office for the Co-Ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) warns that the situation is continuing to deteriorate, and the number of people in need will continue to increase.

The numbers now affected are huge, Ohca says: 3.2m in Ethiopia, 3.2m in Kenya, 2.6m in Somalia and more than 100,000 in Djibouti.

Every month during 2011, about 15,000 Somalis have fled their country, arriving in Kenya and Ethiopia, according to Ocha.

While conflict has been a fact of life for them for years, it is the drought that has brought them to breaking point. Many have walked for days, are exhausted, in poor health, desperate for food and water.

Nearly one third of all children in the Juba region of Somalia are acutely malnourished, while in parts of Ethiopia the figure is even higher, the UN research says. Parts of Uganda are also suffering from the drought.

Hassain, Ali and Sareye are among the 390,000 Somalis to seek refuge in Kenya

The UN refugee agency is dealing with the exodus.

A new refugee camp primarily for Somalis was opened at Kobe in Ethiopia last Friday, near an existing camp at Melkadida.

More than 3,500 refugees and their belongings were moved there over the weekend.

The UNHCR says this is the sixth camp for Somalis in Ethiopia, which is currently housing some 130,000 displaced people.

Food prices have risen substantially across the region, pushing many moderately poor households over the edge.

The price of grain in affected areas in Kenya is 30-80% above average.

The spokeswoman for Ocha, Elizabeth Byrs, said appeals for Somalia and Kenya, each about $525m (?328m), are barely 50% funded, while a $30m appeal for Djibouti has raised just 30% of the needed funds.

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Rise to stardom

28 June 2011 Last updated at 02:45 GMT By Tom Geoghegan BBC News, Washington DC A mother of five from Iowa has emerged as one of the front-runners in the Republican race to take on Barack Obama in next year's US presidential election. So could Michele Bachmann end up in the White House?

All the momentum among Republicans dreaming of the Oval Office is currently with one woman.

Michele Bachmann, a Tea Party favourite and Minnesota congresswoman, is gathering a head of steam in her attempt to win her party's nomination next year.

One day after dominating the Sunday political shows, the former tax lawyer formally launched her campaign in her home state of Iowa, which hosts the first stage in the Republican contest in February next year.

An Iowa poll published in the Des Moines Register on Saturday places her alongside Mitt Romney at the head of the Republican field, well ahead of the rest. That's encouraging for her supporters -but the same poll in 2007 proved to be wildly inaccurate.

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"The parallels are obvious, but they're unfair. Bachmann's managed to shake the comparisons and defined herself. Not long ago I was referring to her as Palin 2.0 but not any more. She's got her own identity, which is critical for her survival."

Jennifer Duffy, Cook Political Report

More compelling evidence of her chances was provided by her impressive performance at a televised debate two weeks ago.

Selling her own attributes on Fox News at the weekend, Ms Bachmann, a 55-year-old lawyer, said: "My husband and I have raised five kids, we've raised 23 foster children. We've applied ourselves to education reform.

"We started a charter school for at-risk kids. I've also been a state senator and member of the United States Congress for five years."

To match her experience, Ms Bachmann has a rags-to-riches story.

Michele Amble was born in Waterloo, Iowa, to Democrat parents of Norwegian descent, but she was brought up by her mother in Anoka, Minnesota, with three brothers, after her mother's divorce.

Aged 16, Michele Bachmann discovered God when, in her own words, "people were coming to the Lord left and right." After graduating from law school in Oklahoma, she studied for a degree in tax law in Virginia.

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In her Iowa declaration, she pressed all the right buttons for this very conservative state”

End Quote Mark Mardell North America editor She worked for the Internal Revenue Service for five years and then left her job to become a full-time mother when she had her fourth child, before pursuing a political career.

"I think Michele Bachmann is the total package," says Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition.

"She's articulate, telegenic and has a depth of policy in every level of government - local, school board, state legislature, Congress.

"And she offers that unique combination that really captures the zeitgeist, which is a marriage of the social conservative and Tea Party activist."

This broad constituency of self-identified Christian evangelicals and their social conservative allies makes up about 41% of Republican primary voters, says Mr Reed, but it's too early and too simplistic to say any one candidate has their bloc vote.

Ms Bachmann has got herself into trouble with past remarks, to the extent that on Sunday, Fox News presenter Chris Wallace bluntly asked her: "Are you a flake?" He later apologised.

There have been several gaffes, like declaring while in New Hampshire that it was the birthplace of the American Revolution, and that the founding fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery.

And there have been some strong views, such as the time she accused liberals like Barack Obama, then a senator for Illinois, of having anti-American views.

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For:

Spending cutsPro-lifeFamily values

Against:

Tax increasesBail-outsGay marriageObama's healthcare plansEnvironmental Protection AgencyTeaching of evolutionBut her consummate performance in a prime-time televised debate two weeks ago marked the emergence of a more disciplined operator, says Larry Jacobs, a professor in political science at the University of Minnesota.

Mr Jacobs, who has met Ms Bachmann about a dozen times, describes her as very engaging in person and smarter than the media portrayals depict her.

"Her brand of conservative populism speaks to the resentments, frustrations and anxieties of voters. She also has a clear identity. Some of the other candidates, like Mitt Romney, it's hard to say what he believes in."

Being the only woman in the race will be an advantage, Mr Jacobs believes, because she can present a different face of the Republican party, one that does not belong to a white male southerner.

However, being a conservative mother with strong opinions and a native of a northern, snowy state has a familiar ring to it.

Comparisons with Sarah Palin are obvious, and the choreography of their schedules brings this into sharper focus this week.

The former Alaska governor, yet to say whether she is running for president, is due in Iowa on Tuesday for the screening of a new documentary about her life called The Undefeated.

Yet these kinds of commercial ventures have lost Mrs Palin credibility and support among conservative populists, says Mr Jacobs, while Ms Bachmann has earned both.

Fundraising is always a crucial factor but Michele Bachmann - with a very experienced campaign team - has proved adept at mining a wide network of donors at grassroots level, each giving small sums.

She also has a more intangible gift - to electrify a crowd - says Arne Carlson, who served as Republican governor in Minnesota when Ms Bachmann was in the state legislature.

Bachmann launched her campaign in the town where she was born, Waterloo, Iowa

"She has the ability to instantly feel an audience and to relate to that audience. And she represents a strain in American thought that Washington and New York don't understand.

"In the Mid West, there's a very deep suspicion of Wall Street and she plays to that."

But the best candidates don't make the most suitable people for governance, Arne Carlson says. Michele Bachmann sees America in very nostalgic terms, he notes - everyone goes to church, everybody has a job and everybody shares the same civic and religious values.

This plays to a narrow base, while the urban, racial or religious diversity of America is not acknowledged, Mr Carlson says. He contends that beneath the surface of her politics, there are some clear flaws.

"The utilisation of the Bible to tell you what's constitutional and what isn't. That's very disturbing," he says, describing her ideology as a no-compromise approach to the debt ceiling, taxes and social issues.

So how far could Michele Bachmann go? There is concern, says Larry Jacobs, that the Minnesotan lawyer could do well in the primaries among conservative voters but then struggle in a general election.

"It's increasingly plausible that she could win against Mitt Romney," he says.

"But whether she could win against Barack Obama is one of the big debates going on in the party behind the scenes."

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Genome plan for Tasmanian devil

27 June 2011 Last updated at 21:02 GMT By Jennifer Carpenter Science reporter, BBC News Originally found across Australia, the devil's dwindling population is now isolated to Tasmania Scientists have sequenced the complete genomes of two Tasmanian devils in the hope of finding clues to preserving this highly endangered marsupial.

Devil populations have been decimated by a highly contagious facial cancer that is transferred when these aggressive animals bite each other.

The findings will help researchers select the best individuals to be kept in captivity for eventual re-release.

The research is outlined in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Tasmanian devil, Sarcophilus harrisii, gets its name from its high-pitch, blood-curdling squeal, and is renowned for fighting over access to animal carcases, which it grinds with the bone-crushing force of its jaws.

Candid cancer

In 1996, a wildlife photographer snapped an image of an animal in the far north-east of Tasmania with a peculiar growth on its face.

The growth, it turned out, was neither benign, nor isolated to this one individual, but was a highly contagious, fatal cancer that seemed to be spreading through the population at lightning speed.

By 2007, conservationists reported that Devil Facial Tumour Disease, DFTD, had wiped out more than 90% of devil populations in the north-east of Tasmania, and was spreading west.

Continue reading the main story Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) is spread by biting during aggressive encountersThe living cancer cells exist as a contagious clone; highly unusual for a cancer. In fact, there is only one other transmissible cancer known, which infects dogs' genitalsThe devil's immune system seems unable to detect the cancerThe disease forms tumours around the mouth interfering with feeding leading to deathThe cancer originally arose in Schwann cells - cells which wrap themselves around nerve tissueFirst seen in 1996, the cancer has since decimated devil populationsA strategy to save the devil from extinction was begun.

Now, an international team of genomicists is offering a helping hand.

The researchers took advantage of the latest technology to read the genetic sequence of two devils - an uninfected male called Cedric, and an infected female called Spirit - along with smaller segments of DNA from 175 other individuals.

The team hopes to use the genomes to pinpoint which individuals should be placed into "protective custody" to wait out the cancerous epidemic before being reintroduced.

From their analysis, the scientists predicted how best to capture as much genetic diversity among the individuals put aside for captive breeding, explained lead author Webb Miller, a genomicist from Pennsylvania State University, US.

He said that choosing individuals who were very genetically dissimilar should take priority over whether they were resistant to the cancer.

The devil you know

"It is a big step forward to actually get the genome sequence from this animal... the [world's largest] remaining carnivorous marsupial," said zoologist David Rollinson from the Natural History Museum, UK.

Getting two complete genomes was very valuable, said Dr Rollinson, but getting as many samples as they did, from as many different animals was "just the icing on the cake".

Dr Rollinson thinks that a similar approach could be used to study and save other endangered animals.

The researchers also sequenced one of the five tumours from Spirit's head for clues to why the Tasmanian devils fail to recognise the cancer as "non-self", and destroy it before it takes hold.

Understanding what it is about the devil's immune system that makes it so ineffectual at picking up the facial cancer will not only help treat those already infected, but will hold clues about whether the cancer can jump species.

"The greatest worry is that it will jump into another marsupial," said cancer geneticist Elizabeth Murchison from the Welcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, UK.

Cedric, one of the two Tasmanian devils to have his genome sequenced, finally succumbed to the facial cancer after putting up an impressive fight

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A start, no panacea

28 June 2011 Last updated at 10:08 GMT By Frank Gardner BBC security correspondent, Dublin What have an ex-gangster, an ex-Islamist and a former neo-Nazi got in common? Paul Carrillo is probably not the sort of guy you would want to mess with.

Stocky and tattooed, his well-cut suit is somewhat at odds with his dark and dangerous past.

Mr Carrillo was a senior member of a violent Hispanic gang in south-central Los Angeles.

When he decided to leave, it took him two years, and beatings.

"What it means to be a gang member in LA is that you have to represent whatever gang you're from everyday, 24 hours a day, seven days a week," he says.

"If you come in to contact with an enemy you have to engage that person. If you have weapons on you, or within reach of you, you have to use them and the mission - or the goal - is to terminate the enemy by any means possible."

Mr Carrillo is today a reformed man, spreading the message that - in most cases - joining these violent gangs can have only two outcomes, prison or death.

Continue reading the main story

Because of the internet you have much more social interaction, both good and bad”

End Quote Eric Schmidt Executive chairman, Google He is one of more than 90 "formers" - the term for reformed gangsters, guerrillas, and Islamist fanatics - who have come together in Dublin to meet victims of the violence they once embraced.

Acts of violence

The Summit Against Violent Extremism is co-sponsored by Google Ideas, US think tank Council on Foreign Relations and the Tribeca Film Festival.

Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt says he is convinced the more information people have at their fingertips about the outside world, the less vulnerable they become to being brainwashed into committing acts of violence.

"Because of the internet you have much more social interaction, much more communication both good and bad, what we would like to see is people who are being forced into something, who don't have a choice, who are uneducated, we would like them to have more choices," says Mr Schmidt.

"To actually be exposed to some new ideas, and maybe this is not the only choice, maybe the choice that their friends are doing is not the only choice, to insert some doubt in the certitude of a 15-year-old."

Messianic conviction

In other words, if one day all teenagers in, for example, the tribal territories of Waziristan had their own 3G mobile phone with full internet access, they would be more aware of their options and less likely to be talked into strapping on a suicide vest.

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What we've come to realise is those two extremes - far-right fascism and Islamist extremism - have a symbiotic relationship, where they mutually reinforce the other's very generalised view of the other, and they feed off each other's propaganda”

End Quote Maajid Nawaz Quilliam Foundation Mr Schmidt admits the internet and new technology have also been huge enablers for terrorism - although videos directly inciting violence are removed from YouTube within minutes, he adds.

But he has an almost messianic conviction that new technology can eventually help prevent angry young men from drifting into a life of violence and extremism.

One of those who helped bring together such an extraordinary gathering is Maajid Nawaz.

A former extremist in the UK branch of Hizb-ut-Tahrir and now a de-radicaliser with the Quilliam Foundation, Mr Nawaz spent years in an Egyptian jail, then emerged convinced he had taken the wrong path.

He now believes there is a perverse commonality between Islamist extremists and right-wing gangs.

'Five shots in the back'

"I didn't imagine sharing a panel with a former neo-Nazi, because, of course, I joined the group I did, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, at 16 after being chased in the streets by [the right-wing extremist group] Combat 18, and being stabbed." says Mr Nawaz.

"What we've come to realise is those two extremes - far-right fascism and Islamist extremism - have a symbiotic relationship, where they mutually reinforce the other's very generalised view of the other, and they feed off each other's propaganda."

Gill Hicks campaigns for reconciliation, after being injured in the London bomb attacks on 7 July 2005

Not everybody at this forum in Dublin has escaped their past physically unscathed.

I spot a young Hispanic American in a wheelchair similar to mine and we get talking. Eric Gibson used to be in the LA gang, the Bloods.

Like me, he survived multiple gunshot wounds, but it was seeing an innocent child get killed that shocked him into leaving.

"It was a drive-by and I was standing outside the car, and he was in a car driving by," the former gang member says.

"The car slowed down and he leaned his hand all the way out, he was real close to me. He just started firing the gun. The first shot hit the little girl. She was 13 years old. And I caught the other five shots in the back."

And what of those who never had any part in violence, but have found themselves unwittingly caught up in it?

Gill Hicks lost both her legs in the bomb attacks in London on 7 July 2005. Now a campaigner for reconciliation and understanding, she is visibly upbeat about this forum to exchange ideas and come up with solutions.

"This is very very encouraging that we've got a global company, a cyber-based internet company, that has brought people together physically, and that's the really interesting part of this process, because of the power of standing together, looking each other in the eye, and shaking hands," says Ms Hicks.

"And then we go back to our respective places and we get on with our work, but we've got the reassurance that somewhere in the world, someone else is doing exactly the same thing."

This summit against violent extremism is obviously not going to be a panacea for gang violence or terrorism.

But it is a start, the germ of a new network of anti-extremists, backed by a media organisation, Google, whose chairman has promised this will not be just a one-off event.

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