Saleem Shahzad worked for the Italian news agency Adnkronos and Asia Times Online
Related Stories
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has condemned the murder of a Pakistani journalist who had recently written an article about al-Qaeda infiltration in Pakistan’s navy.
Saleem Shahzad’s body was found on Tuesday two days after he went missing.
Earlier a Human Rights Watch researcher said he had “credible information” that Shahzad was in the custody of Pakistani intelligence.
Pakistan has ordered an immediate inquiry into his kidnapping and murder.
“The United States strongly condemns the abduction and killing of reporter Syed Saleem Shahzad,” Ms Clinton said in a statement.
“His work reporting on terrorism and intelligence issues in Pakistan brought to light the troubles extremism poses to Pakistan’s stability,” she said.
Mrs Clinton also welcomed the investigation into the killing.
Mr Shahzad’s funeral will take place in his native city of Karachi on Wednesday. His article about al-Qaeda infiltration in Pakistan’s navy was recently published.
The post mortem report said that there were “15 torture marks” on his body, and no bullet wounds.
It said the death was probably caused by a fatal blow to the body in the chest region.
Analysis
Saleem Shahzad’s death has shocked journalists across Pakistan. But the horror is not so much caused by the death itself – it is the widely held belief that he was in the custody of the ISI intelligence agency when he was killed.
In the past, journalists trying to poke their noses into the geostrategic games of the Pakistani intelligence community have been picked up and given a dose of what they might expect if they cross the line. Some of them gradually faded away as avenues of reporting closed for them. Others learned their lesson, quit their bases, or reverted to “responsible” journalism, as it is known in Pakistan. Though none of them spoke publicly about their ordeals, other journalists were aware of what was going on.
Those working for comparatively little known or less influential media groups – like Shahzad did – have been more vulnerable. In a country where journalists have borne the brunt of political as well as religious extremism, the thought of state institutions also joining the persecution has always been an uncomfortable one. The feeling that these institutions might actually kill journalists in cold blood is more dreadful than killings by extremists.
Mr Shahzad had reported recently that the militant group had launched the deadly assault on the Mehran base in Karachi, the headquarters of the navy’s air wing, on 22 May because talks had failed over the release of several naval personnel arrested on suspicion of links to al-Qaeda affiliates.
At least 14 people were killed and two navy warplanes destroyed.
On Monday, a former navy commando and his brother were detained for their alleged role in helping plan the raid, which embarrassed the military.
The 40-year-old’s body was found in a canal in Mandi Baha Uddin in Pakistan’s northern Gujarat district.
Earlier, Human Rights Watch researcher Ali Dayan Hasan said Mr Shahzad had recently complained about being threatened by the intelligence arm of the Pakistan military, the Inter Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI).
A senior Pakistani intelligence official told the Associated Press it was “absurd” to say that the ISI had anything to do with Mr Shahzad’s death.
The dead man, who had a wife and three children, worked for the Italian news agency Adnkronos International (AKI) and was Pakistan bureau chief for Asia Times Online.
Human rights groups recently called Pakistan the most dangerous place in the world for journalists to operate, saying they were under threat from Islamist militants but also Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
A woman who lost her unborn baby as a result of the Strep B infection has called for routine testing to detect the presence of the bacteria.
Group B streptococcus is a bacteria that can be passed between the mother and child during a natural birth.
It is the most common cause of blood infections and meningitis in newborns and often causes the death of the baby.
Gillian Boyd said her pregnancy had been perfectly normal up until her baby was stillborn at full-term.
She said when midwives told her they could not detect her baby’s heart-beat “my world was falling apart, but I still didn’t want to believe them.
“After an actual scan a doctor then confirmed there was no heart-beat and that Erin had already died.
“After that they gave me some gas and air and I knew at that stage that I had to deliver a baby who wasn’t going to cry.”
“For the families involved it would be a very sensible and worthwhile investment. I happen to personally feel that women should be tested”
Alasdair McDonnell MP and doctor
It was only after a post mortem examination that she found out her baby had died due an infection caused by Group B streptococcus.
“I know that if this bacteria is detected in a pregnant woman, that it can be easily prevented,” Gillian said.
“They could prevent more if a test was done.”
Health Minister Edwin Poots said it was understandable that people were calling for screening after such tragedies.
“However, the UK National Screening Committee, the expert body which advises the four UK health departments on screening programmes, has kept under review the evidence for screening for Group B Streptococcal (GBS) infection, and following the most recent review in 2009 the NSC reaffirmed its advice that screening for GBS should not be offered.
“I will continue to keep this situation under close review.”
South Belfast MP Dr Alasdair McDonnell said testing would be expensive, but worthwhile for families affected.
“It’s one of these balancing acts that we’ve got into in the health service,” he said.
“It makes perfect sense to test, but you’re in a situation where there’s something like 75 babies a year are affected yet it would cost probably something in the region of millions of pounds to do the test.
“But for the families involved it would be a very sensible and worthwhile investment. I happen to personally feel that women should be tested.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Plans to close Scottish primary schools have been fiercely opposed
Related Stories
The Scottish government is calling on councils to introduce a moratorium on plans to close rural schools.
Education Secretary Mike Russell has written to council leaders asking them to halt plans to shut rural schools until next June.
He is also to set up a commission on how rural education should be delivered.
The Scottish government said it could force councils to comply with a moratorium if necessary.
But council umbrella group Cosla suggested Mr Russell’s move “did not add up”.
Councils are responsible for delivering education in their area but the Scottish government has the power to call in plans for school closures if it does not believe the correct processes have been followed by the authority. Mike Russell is
A Commission on the Delivery of Rural Education will be established to consider the provision of education in rural communities and to take a comprehensive look at the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010.
The Scottish government says this will include a clear legislative presumption against the closure of rural schools and the need for educational benefits to be the driving force in any proposed closure.
Mr Russell said: “The delivery of education in rural communities is about much more than a school building, it is fundamental to the social and economic make-up of a community.
Mike Russell is setting up a commission looking at rural education
“That is why it is the right of individual communities to have genuine consultation based on accurate information and why there is, and will remain, a clear legislative presumption against closure.
“However, since the Schools Consultation Act came into force there have been differences in the interpretation of the act.
“I believe that these differences have resulted in the original intentions of the act – that the educational, not financial, benefits should be the main consideration – not always being followed.
“To allow for a comprehensive and fair assessment of the closures process, I have asked for a one-year moratorium during which local authorities will not propose rural schools for closure.”
“Does anybody honestly think that any council leader or education convener takes a decision to close a single school, rural or otherwise, without a tremendous amount of thought?”
Pat Watters Cosla
Mr Russell added: “During this period a new Commission on the Delivery of Rural Education will be tasked with, amongst other things, reviewing the legislation and its application and making recommendations on best practice on the delivery of education in rural areas.
“It will also look at innovation and the link between rural education and rural regeneration.
“I will announce more details on its remit and membership shortly, but it will have licence to think radically and will return at the start of the next year with fresh proposals.”
One of the biggest rows over proposed rural school closures is in Argyll and Bute where Mr Russell was elected as the MSP last month.
Argyll and Bute Council is proposing to shut 11 primary schools. As things stand, any schools which close at the end of the consultation process are scheduled to shut at Christmas.
Many of the proposed closures have been met by fierce local opposition.
No-one from Argyll and Bute Council was immediately available for comment.
But Cosla appeared to be unhappy that it had not been consulted before Mr Russell wrote to councils individually.
Its president Councillor Pat Watters said: “There is a difference between being consulted and being told. This is a subject that has never been raised at any of our political meetings – the way it has been done does not add up.
“The Scottish government would be able to impose a mandatory moratorium, created through legislation, if necessary”
Scottish government spokesman
“Does anybody honestly think that any council leader or education convener takes a decision to close a single school, rural or otherwise, without a tremendous amount of thought?
“Yes, we are driven by factors like finance and balancing budgets, but our main motivation is councils need to support educational attainment for all our young people across their area.
“Councils have always had to make this difficult call and we fully understand that it can cause tensions.”
He added: “If there is a way in which we can marry the financial issues facing us, the need to balance all the educational issues across a council area and a satisfactory outcome for pupils, parents, central and local government then that should be embraced and it would certainly be something that I would be willing to put to my colleagues in local government.
“The subject of school closures is a serious problem that can only be solved in partnership.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Councils have already expressed some concerns, via Cosla and Ades (Association of Directors of Education in Scotland), about how the process for closures has been working to date.
“We would therefore expect councils to welcome a period during which the process and associated legislation will be reviewed, adhering to the moratorium.
“The Scottish government would be able to impose a mandatory moratorium, created through legislation, if necessary.
“However, this would be time consuming and time which could be better spent looking at the substantive issue and seeking a way forward in the delivery of rural education.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Michelangelo never completed the Battle of Cascina fresco
Related Stories
A rare Michelangelo drawing is expected to sell for up to £5 million in London next month, according to Christie’s.
The male nude is one of only 24 sheets relating to The Battle of Cascina, an uncompleted work described by the auction house as “one of the greatest Western masterpieces that never was”.
The only time the drawing has been seen in public was in Vienna last year.
Benjamin Peronnet of Christie’s said it offered “a glimpse into the mind of a genius at the peak of his powers”.
Michelangelo was commissioned to commemorate the 1364 Battle of Cascina in a fresco at Florence’s Sala del Gran Consiglio in 1504.
Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned at the same time to paint the Battle of Anghiari of 1440 on an opposite wall.
Neither piece was completed and only survive through engravings and sketches.
The sketch – the only study for the fresco in private hands – will go under the hammer on 5 July.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
At least 37 people have been killed in overnight fighting in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, doctors and officials say.
Violence escalated after a ceasefire broke down between security forces and fighters loyal to Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, head of a tribal confederation.
Analysts say the conflict threatens to drag Yemen into civil war.
Yemen is facing increasing unrest in several areas after President Ali Abdullah Saleh refused to step down.
Witnesses reported heavy fighting in the capital overnight as both sides blamed each other for breaking the ceasefire.
The defence ministry accused tribesmen of seizing the headquarters of the ruling General People’s Congress and other offices in Sanaa.
However, sources close to Sheikh Ahmar said government forces had attacked his compound in the north of the city.
Medical officials in Sanaa said casualties included fighters from both sides.
On Tuesday, another 12 protesters were shot dead in the southern city of Taiz following a move by security forces to remove the protest camp from the city centre.
There were also further clashes in the town of Zinjibar where government forces have been battling fighters described as al-Qaeda militants.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
As pub closures increase, landlords are turning to traditional tools to attract trade, with giant chain Punch launching a national pub quiz to lure customers back. But since many quizzers have smartphones in their pockets, naming Mali’s capital is less of a challenge than it once was. Question-setter Alan Connor looks at how to Google-proof a quiz.
Text-messaging Is Destroying the Pub Quiz As We Know It, noted the Super Furry Animals in 2001. Little did they know that the pub quiz of 2011 would start with the host insisting: “OK, iPhones away, please. Yes, very clever – and Androids. All phones away.”
Cheating has always been possible in pub quizzes. But while once the dishonest quizzer had to pop out to phone a friend, or wait for a text message reply, phones with fast internet access have taken cheating possibilities to a new level.
So on the one hand, 24/7 access to information threatens to deal a deadly blow to the tradition of competitively recalling facts over a few pints. On the other, smartphones offer an opportunity to question-setters to come up with more inventive ways of testing drinkers’ knowledge.
Some rounds are safe. The traditional A4 sheet with photos of well-known people can’t be farmed out to the internet. But it’s not feasible to base every round on colour printouts.
Others need to adapt. Playing extracts from pop songs risks competitors searching for the lyrics. Lyric rounds themselves are obviously out, along with naming titles or chart places.
Better to use instrumentals, perhaps – although services like Shazam allow the devious to have a remote server identify a track if their phone can “hear” 10 seconds of it. A truly secure music round might consist of “mash-ups” – two songs played or mixed together, or even of sheet music.
The challenge for quizmasters is to ask for things that computers don’t – or can’t – know. Machines can be better than any human at chess, for example, but are not so hot at cryptic crosswords.
So a smartphone-proof quiz might feature questions which can only be solved by making associations. For example, what connects a single by the Pogues, an Italian island resort and a unit of electrical current? (Answer in the box at the bottom.)
“The more you complicate a question, the more Google-proof it becomes,” says Thomas Eaton, who sets questions for The Weakest Link. “You can set something up and then ask people to make elliptical connections – the kind of thing you get in Round Britain Quiz on Radio 4.” Another examples is the “What links…?” section of Eaton’s weekly quiz in the Guardian.
Google-proof quizWhich pop song is summarised thus: “A man stands in a severely dilapidated dwelling and realises he won’t have the chance to do the necessary DIY before he dies”?And: “In an area of low pressure and high humidity, a series of bodies falls from the sky at approximately 22:30”?What connects… a single by the Pogues, an Italian island resort and a unit of electrical current?Which film features dialogue which has been mistranslated as follows: “No Christ – this is an imp”?And: “Thoroughfares? Where we shall be, we are not wanting thoroughfares”?Which TV show begins as follows: “A man peruses a selection of leather-bound books, rejecting a couple, finally choosing one with a cheaper book hidden inside”?And: “A bus causes an ironic wardrobe malfunction”?Answers in the box below
One area where we humans still beat computers is grasping what information means. My quiz on Twitter, Just The Gist, summarises the stories of pop songs without any giveaway details. For example: “In an area of low pressure and high humidity, a series of bodies falls from the sky at approximately 22:30.”
Similarly, it’s possible to convey the sense of a quotation without any information a search engine recognises. Here is a line from a British film, translated online through a few languages and back to English: “No Christ. This is an imp.”
Technology can be used against itself. Quizmasters can show a results page and have quizzers guess the search term.
The problem is that smartphones are constantly advancing. Until recently, I included some puzzles from newspapers in the sheets handed out to contestants during the break. “Sudoku used to be the safe haven of a clever quizmaster, but we’ve cracked that as well,” says Stephen Rosenthal of Google, displaying an app where the user photographs a sudoku and a remote machine sends back a completed grid.
The same app, Google Goggles, can be used to identify the covers of CDs and books – but the quizmaster can stay one step ahead by blurring those images, leaving them recognisable to the human eye. Algorithms can’t squint.
Pity the quizmaster, then, forced to ponder which kinds of information are understood better by humans than by computers – the same “Turing tests” that occupy the fine minds of those who work in artificial intelligence.
The final gambit available to the host is to stop cheating being worthwhile.
The answersPop songs: This Ole House, It’s Raining MenWhat connects: Ford cars (Fiesta, Capri, Ka)Mistranslated movie lines: Life of Brian (“He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy”), Back to the Future (“Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads?”)Title sequences: Blackadder the Third, Sex and the CitySheet music: Over the Rainbow
Some quizmasters include a round where the questions come in so fast, no-one’s thumbs can keep up. It’s possible to get 25 questions into two minutes this way; there’s also the kind of round where the first team with a hand up and the right answer gets the points.
Other types of expertise can be tested – asking the contestants to draw a circle with an area of 20cm squared, say. And as far as we know, the senses of smell, taste and touch cannot be relayed over the internet, raising possibilities like “Identify the Brand of Crisp”.
Why are quizmasters forced to go to these lengths to ensure fairness?
Victoria Coren of BBC Four’s Only Connect is puzzled.
“Why would somebody go to a pub quiz, or launch a game of Scrabble, and then look up the answers on the sly? What meaning are they ascribing to the victory? There must be a massive national self-esteem problem.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
US retaliation for cyber-attacks could take many forms 
