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Oxfam launches flood funds probe

Children at a camp for flood victims along the road from Dadu, in Pakistan's Sindh province

Between 14 to 20 million people were affected by the floods in July 2010

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An investigation into “financial irregularities” in Oxfam’s flood relief programme in Pakistan has been launched by the charity.

An independent external audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers is under way after the problem was discovered in the southern province of Sindh.

A spokesman said they would make every effort to recover any missing money.

More than 1,750 people are thought to have been killed by the floods which began in July 2010.

The charity is currently providing humanitarian aid to more than 1.95 million people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh.

It has provided clean water, sanitation and temporary shelter kits.

Oxfam emphasised that, even if the financial irregularities were confirmed, it would represent less than 2% of their total emergency flood response spending in Pakistan.

In a statement it said: “Oxfam is committed to upholding the strictest and most rigorous financial controls and ensuring its programme is being delivered in a transparent and accountable manner.

“Oxfam’s own internal monitoring and auditing system identified the financial irregularity currently being investigated.

“Oxfam’s priority is to ensure that donors’ money is spent effectively and that it provides the support expected and committed to poor people in Pakistan.

“We are conducting this investigation to allow us to continue to be accountable to the communities that we work with, and ensure improved service delivery in the future.”

It added: “Oxfam will not be making any further financial commitments until the investigation has been completed.”

Although the death toll from last summer’s deluge was relatively low, between 14 and 20 million people were affected.

The floods started in the mountainous north and surged south, destroying 1.2 million homes and damaging about 14% of Pakistan’s land under cultivation.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

VIDEO: Thousands attend Pope’s Croatian Mass

Pope Benedict XVI has celebrated Mass, focusing on family values, before tens of thousands of people in the Croatian capital, Zagreb.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Pakistan bakery attack kills 18

At least 18 people have been killed in a bomb explosion in north-western Pakistan, officials say.

They say the blast took place at a bakery in the town of Nowshera. Dozens are reported to have been wounded.

The bombing is the latest in a string of recent attacks in Pakistan.

Militants in the country have vowed to avenge the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. He was killed by US forces in a garrison city north of Islamabad on 2 May.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Israeli troops open fire in Golan

Israeli soldiers have fired on Palestinian protesters in Syria as they marched on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

A BBC producer said she saw dozens of people trying to cross the border, and then saw Israeli troops open fire.

Three people fell to the ground, but it was not clear if they were injured, she said. Syrian state TV says two people have died.

The protesters are marking the 44th anniversary of the 1967 Mid-East war.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Yemenis rejoice as Saleh leaves

Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa - 20 May 2011

President Saleh had promised to step down but failed to sign a deal to do so

Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh has flown to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment, a day after he was wounded, Saudi officials say.

Uncertainty surrounded Mr Saleh’s whereabouts for much of Saturday.

Sources in Yemen told the BBC that Mr Saleh had a piece of shrapnel below his heart and second-degree burns to his chest and face.

An uprising demanding that Mr Saleh leave power has led to violence bringing Yemen close to civil war.

The Yemeni president arrived in the Saudi capital Riyadh aboard a Saudi medical plane.

A Gulf nation diplomatic source told BBC Arabic that the decision to transfer Mr Saleh to Riyadh was taken after Saudi doctors consulted with a German medical team.

A source told Reuters news agency that Mr Saleh walked off the plane after arriving in Riyadh, but had visible wounds to his face, neck and head.

A second plane carried members of the president’s family, AFP news agency said, quoting an unnamed Saudi official.

Mr Saleh and several senior officials were praying at the al-Nahdayn mosque inside the presidential compound in the south of Sanaa on Friday afternoon at the time of the attack.

The mosque was originally thought to have been hit by rockets, but there are now suggestions someone may have planted a bomb there.

Damage to the mosque in the presidential palace in Sanaa where President Ali Abdullah Saleh was wounded - 4 June 2011

The attack on the mosque left seven of Mr Saleh’s bodyguards dead and several officials wounded

The president broadcast an audio message on Friday after he was wounded but did not appeared in public.

In the broadcast, he blamed the attack on an “outlaw gang” of his tribal foes – an accusation denied by Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar, the head of the Hashid tribal federation, whose fighters have been clashing with security forces.

More than 160 people have been killed in the fighting that began on 23 May and has brought Yemen to the brink of civil war.

After reports of a Saudi-brokered ceasefire, Sanaa was calm for much of Saturday.

But overnight fighting resumed, with the sounds of heavy shelling in the northern parts of the capital, freelance journalist Iona Craig, in Sanaa, told the BBC.

The prominent Ahmar family has been financing the opposition and helping sustain protesters, who have been demanding Mr Saleh’s resignation since January despite a crackdown that has left at least 350 people dead.

Western and regional powers have been urging Mr Saleh to sign a Gulf Co-operation Council-brokered deal that would see him hand over power to his deputy in return for an amnesty from prosecution.

He has agreed to sign on several occasions, but then backed out.

With Mr Saleh out of the country, it is not clear who is in charge. The constitution calls for the vice president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, to take over, including command of the armed forces and security services.

But Mr Saleh’s son Ahmed commands the elite Republican Guard and other relatives control security and intelligence units.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Pope arrives at the hippodrome in Zagreb to celebrate mass on 5/6/11

As many as 400,000 people were expected in Zagreb

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Pope Benedict XVI is celebrating Mass, focusing on family values before tens of thousands of people in the Croatian capital, Zagreb.

Later, he will visit the tomb of a controversial wartime cardinal.

Upon arrival on Saturday, the Pope gave his backing to Croatia’s bid to join the European Union.

He said he understood fears of a loss of cultural identity by joining the EU, but said Europe needed reminding of its Christian roots.

“From its beginning, your nation has belonged to Europe,” he said as he arrived at the airport.

This is Pope Benedict’s first visit to the staunchly Catholic nation and, despite some criticism at the $6m (£3.6m; 4m euros) cost of the two-day trip, he received a warm welcome.

After touching down in Zagreb, he met Croatian President Ivo Josipovic, before addressing a gathering of academics, cultural, business and diplomatic leaders.

Stepinac: Hero or collaborator?

History records that, in 1941, while Archbishop of Zagreb, Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac supported Croatia’s Nazi-backed government.

But by the following year, he was making speeches against the regime’s genocidal policies, which led to the deaths of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Gypsies and Croat opponents.

Critics say his condemnation was not public enough or strong enough.

In 1946, he fell foul of the Communist rulers of the new Yugoslavia – of which Croatia was a part.

In a trial that Catholics maintain was a farce, he was convicted of collaborating with the Nazis.

He was still under house arrest 14 years later, when he died. Mystery continues to surround his death, with many Croatian Catholics believing he was murdered.

In the evening, he led a prayer vigil for some 25,000 young Croatians in Zagreb’s main square.

Many chanted “Pope, we love you” during an hour and a half of prayers, songs and an address from Pope Benedict in which he urged them not to be led astray by “lifestyles which regard appearances as more important than inner depth”.

As many as 400,000 people from across Croatia and neighbouring countries are expected to attend Sunday’s mass inside Zagreb’s hippodrome.

After the mass, Pope Benedict is due to pray at the tomb of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac.

Stepinac is a hero to many Catholics in Croatia, who, they say, spoke out against the Nazi-backed regime during WWII and later refused to bow to the communist rulers of Yugoslavia.

But critics say he did not sufficiently condemn the persecution of Serbs and Jews by the Nazi rulers.

The late Pope John Paul II caused controversy when, during a visit to Croatia in 1998, he put Cardinal Stepinac on the road to sainthood.

Pope Benedict on Saturday praised the cardinal’s “real humanism”, but he did not say whether he would be proclaimed a saint.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.