Challenge to Israeli boycott ban

14 July 2011 Last updated at 14:16 GMT By Yolande Knell BBC News, Jerusalem A woman in Tel Aviv signs a new Peace Now petition against settlement products Israeli civil rights groups are planning to challenge a new law designed to stop boycotts of products from West Bank settlements.

The ban on any "geographically-based boycott" was passed on Monday.

The law has been strongly condemned as "deeply undemocratic" and a violation of freedom of expression.

Petitions against it are to be filed in Israel's High Court. One group is also calling for a boycott of olive oil and wine from settlements.

The law enables the filing of civil lawsuits against Israeli individuals or organisations who openly appeal for a boycott. No evidence of actual financial damage is required by the party suing for damages.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel says the new law is "unconstitutional and anti-democratic" and sets a bad precedent. It is demanding its disqualification by the High Court.

Gush Shalom, an organisation which campaigns for an end to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory, is also pledging to challenge the law on legal grounds.

It said the legislation aimed "to silence criticism against the government's policies in general and its policies in the occupied territories in particular, and prevent an open and productive political discourse, which is the backbone of a democratic regime".

A coalition of four rights groups - Adalah, a legal rights organisation for Israeli-Arabs, Physicians for Human Rights, the Public Committee against Torture and the Coalition of Women for Peace - says it will join legal appeals.

Peace Now has already taken a different tack, directly defying the new restrictions. It is using posters and social media to call on the Israeli public to boycott Ahiya Olive Oil and Psagot Wine which are produced by Jewish settlers.

Its Facebook group, "So Sue Me, I'm Boycotting the Settlements", already has more than 7,000 likes.

Right-wing measure

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six Day War but its settlements are deemed illegal under international law. Continued building in the settlements derailed the latest peace talks with the Palestinians who want the land as part of a future state.

The "Law for Prevention of Damage to the State of Israel through Boycott" won a majority of 47 to 38 votes in the Israeli Knesset. It was proposed by right-wing politicians, angry at domestic dissent towards Israeli policies in the West Bank.

Israeli artists decided to boycott a new cultural centre in the West Bank settlement of Ariel

Among the recent initiatives was a declaration by Israeli academics and artists that they would boycott the West Bank settlement of Ariel.

Israeli developers also agreed not to use products or services from settlements when they signed on to help build a new modern Palestinian city, north of Ramallah.

Speaking on Israeli Army Radio, the finance minister, Yuval Steinitz said: "Boycotts against the state of Israel certainly cannot be considered legitimate from Israel's point of view and boycotts against the settlements or any other region of the country are not a democratic way to determine democratic oversight."

The Israeli media has criticised the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for not turning up to vote on Monday. However he has defended the legislation.

"I approved the law. If I hadn't approved, it wouldn't have gotten here and it wouldn't have passed," Netanyahu said. "I am against boycotts aimed at the state of Israel in general, and I am against boycotts aimed at groups within Israel."

The concept of boycotts is a sensitive one for Israelis, going back to a long-standing boycott by the Arab world that led some global firms to avoid doing business with Israel.

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CSI challenge

13 July 2011 Last updated at 00:00 GMT By Julian Miglierini BBC News, Mexico City Mexico is trying to train more staff who are qualified to investigate crime scenes Walk past the modern facilities of Mexico City's forensic headquarters and it is hard to imagine that the building hosts one of the grimmest aspects of Mexico's war on drugs.

Inside are dozens of unidentified corpses - most believed to be the victims of the drug gang violence that has engulfed parts of this country.

They were found in clandestine graves in the north of the country - a macabre twist to the bloodletting that has seen some 40,000 people killed since late 2006.

Some mortuaries in the violence hot spots - mostly in the north near the US border - have been overwhelmed by the discovery of hundreds of corpses.

"We only have facilities to deal with 20 bodies," Dr Jose Gutierrez Silva, head of the forensic service in the city of Durango told the BBC.

"We had to hire two trucks that are specially fitted to hold corpses."

Tortured victims

To date, some 250 bodies have been found in several mass graves in the state of Durango.

Julian Miglierini visits Mexico City's Forensic Medical Service

It has been a similar story in the north-eastern state of Tamaulipas, where more than 190 bodies were unearthed earlier this year near the town of San Fernando.

That is why many bodies have been brought to the capital.

At Mexico City's Forensic Medical Service (Semefo), work continues to try to give a name to the victims stored in temperature-controlled vaults behind two heavy metal doors.

The hope is that a positive identification means a body can be handed over to grieving relatives.

Mexican officials say the number of forensic staff employed at a national level is now 1,500 - up from 454 a decade ago.

Some states, like Durango, have opened new forensic laboratories over the last few months, while the while the main university, UNAM in Mexico City, is set to introduce a new degree course next year to train people in forensic science.

But the expansion of the forensic service will take time - while the victims keep turning up.

"We support states in the north of the country by receiving these bodies because they don't have facilities to keep them for long," says Dr Macario Susano Pompeyo, technical director of Semefo.

"And since they keep on finding bodies, that makes their work more difficult."

About 120 of the Tamaulipas bodies, some mutilated and bearing the signs of torture, were moved to Mexico City.

So far, less than a quarter of the corpses has been formally identified. None of the victims, Dr Pompeyo says, had any links with criminal groups.

"They were migrants making their way to cross the border with the US," he says.

That could explain why few families come looking for their loved ones.

"Many of them do not even know if their relative is missing or dead," says Dr Pompeyo.

Missing or murdered?

That is not the case of Maximo Bazaldua, who believes his brother-in-law Rafael, could be among the bodies at the Semefo facilities.

The last time he heard from him, in March 2010, Rafael was on a bus on his way to the US.

Limited storage means some unidentified victims have already had to be reburied

Over the phone, he told his family that the bus he was on had been stopped in Tamaulipas at a supposed checkpoint near San Fernando.

Mr Bazaldua's efforts to find his brother-in-law have so far been unsuccessful.

The search involves dealing with different departments, a lot of bureaucracy and costs money travelling to and from Tamaulipas.

"We're about to give up," he says.

Rafael seems set, for the foreseeable future at least, to remain on the list of some 6,000 people who have gone missing in Mexico since 2006, according to human rights groups.

As for the bodies in Semefo's vaults, their destiny contains a grim irony.

If in about a year, no relative has claimed them, they will be buried again in mass graves.

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Murray ready for Nadal challenge

By Piers Newbery
BBC Sport at Wimbledon Venue: All England Club, LondonDate: 20 June-3 JulyCoverage: Live on BBC One, Two, 3D, HD, Red Button, online (UK only), Radio 5 live, 5 live sports extra; live text commentary from 0900 BST on BBC Sport website (#bbctennis); watch again on iPlayerRelaxed Murray ready to 'up his game'

Andy Murray faces the daunting challenge of defeating defending champion Rafael Nadal on Friday if he is to reach his first Wimbledon final.

The British number one has the chance to make up for defeat by Nadal in last year's semi-finals when they meet in Friday's second match on Centre Court.

Novak Djokovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga open play in the first semi-final, which begins at 1300 BST.

Victory will ensure the Serbian becomes world number one next week.

Having lost just one match in 2011, another win will mean Djokovic has done enough to overhaul Nadal at the top of the standings no matter how the Spaniard fares against Murray.

Nadal needs no extra motivation as he closes in on an 11th Grand Slam title and his third at the All England Club, where he is on a 19-match unbeaten run.

As the two-time champion, and with an 11-4 head-to-head record against Murray that includes wins at Wimbledon in 2010 and 2008, Nadal is a strong favourite once again.

Both men have had injury concerns during the tournament, Nadal to his foot and Murray his hip, but the two came through practice sessions at Wimbledon apparently unscathed on Thursday.

"I feel fine, I'm just looking forward to tomorrow now," Murray told BBC Sport after practising. "I'll do all the right preparation and recovery stuff and try and play my best tomorrow."

And the 24-year-old Scot is not intimidated by the prospect of another meeting with Nadal, who beat him in the French Open semi-finals just four weeks ago, as well as in that Wimbledon semi-final of 2010.

"I believe I can win against him," said Murray. "I had chances last year. I was a break up in the third set, had break point on my serve in the second set - I think there was only one break in the first set. We both played good tennis.

Nadal is the best - Murray

"I just have to have a better game plan. Sometimes it comes down to strategy, sometimes it comes down to having experience. I just have to go out there and play well, serve well, and believe I'll have a chance."

Nadal is certainly taking nothing for granted, having lost to Murray in Grand Slams before - in the 2008 US Open semi-finals and the 2010 Australian Open quarter-finals.

"Every year is a different situation," said the 25-year-old Majorcan. "Last year I beat him here in the semi-finals bit it was a very close match, even if it was in straight sets. In the second set he had a set point on his serve.

"So the match will be very difficult for me, I think he's playing at a very, very high level."

One concern for Nadal has been a foot injury picked up in his fourth-round win over Juan Martin del Potro that briefly threatened his continuing participation in the tournament, and it remains an issue.

"My foot is not fine," he said, adding: "I have pain in the foot, I cannot run in perfect conditions without [an injection]. But with the anaesthetic, I don't feel the pain."

Murray sweeps into semi-finals

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