Category: news

A mountaineer from Gloucestershire has scaled Everest for the eighth time, breaking his own British record.

Kenton Cool, 36, from Fairford, completed the challenge earlier at about 0600 local time (0100 BST).

He was leading an expedition of four others including Berkshire’s Bonita Norris, 22, who has become the youngest British woman to reach the summit.

Mr Cool’s wife Jazz said the group, accompanied by Sherpa supporters, had left base camp on Thursday.

Mrs Cool, who is expecting the couple’s first child in about five weeks’ time, said: "I got a call from the summit last night and he sounded absolutely jubilant and really delighted that he had managed it for the eighth time."

She said everyone in the expedition had reached the peak. Ms Norris, from Wokingham, reached the summit at about 1130 local time (0630 BST), she added.

The other members of the expedition are two American men and an Australian woman.

In 2006, Mr Cool became the first Briton to ski down from the summit of an 8,000-metre peak in Tibet.

In 2007, he became the first British guide to successfully lead a client up the North Face of the Eiger in Switzerland, commonly referred to as the "Death Wall".

The client was Sir Ranulph Fiennes and the expedition raised £2m for the charity Marie Curie Cancer Care.

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Mortgage borrowing by house buyers is recovering, the Council of Mortgage Lenders says.

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A woman has appeared in court charged with the attempted murder of Labour MP Stephen Timms.

Former treasury minister Mr Timms, 54, was stabbed twice in the stomach at his constituency surgery in Newham, east London, on Friday.

Roshonara Choudhary, 21, of East Ham, was remanded in custody by Stratford Magistrates’ Court. She will next appear at the Old Bailey on 1 June.

Mr Timms is said to be recovering well after surgery at Royal London Hospital.

A spokeswoman for the Royal London Hospital said Mr Timms was "comfortable and resting on a ward" and was expected to be discharged within the next few days.

Newham Council said it was reviewing security arrangements following the incident.

Ms Choudhary has also been charged with two counts of possession of an offensive weapon.

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Ex-Football Association chairman Geoff Thompson has been appointed chairman of England’s 2018 World Cup bid team after Lord Triesman resigned on Sunday.

Triesman was caught up in a newspaper sting suggesting Spain could drop its bid if rival bidder Russia helped bribe referees at this summer’s World Cup.

Thompson is vice-president of world football’s governing body Fifa.

And fellow 2018 board member Sebastian Coe insists the bid can overcome the setback of Triesman’s abrupt departure.

Coe, who masterminded the 2005 campaign to bring the Olympic Games to London, has instigated a rescue plan for the 2018 bid.

"It has been traumatic but it does not become a bad bid overnight," said Coe.

"Solid foundations are in place: we have the best venues, the most passionate fans, the best market for sponsors and an unparalleled ability to deliver this tournament in safe and secure surroundings.

"The only thing we don’t have is the private views of the former chairman."

Thompson is well known in the upper reaches of football administration, having previously served as FA chairman for nine years before Triesman.

The 64-year-old is also vice-president of European football’s governing body Uefa and was part of the five-man delegation that presented England’s bid book to Fifa in Zurich on Friday.

Coe, who is a lifelong Chelsea fan, has already briefed Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke and is set to speak to president Sepp Blatter on Monday.

It is also expected that a delegation from the bid team will go to Zurich this week in an attempt to get an audience with Blatter.

Meanwhile, Coe – along with Thompson, 2018 chief executive Andy Anson, 2012 official Sir Keith Mills and other board members and bid executives – will continue talking to Fifa to explain the circumstances behind Triesman’s departure.

Double Olympic gold medallist Coe took leave of absence from his position as chairman of Fifa’s ethics committee in February 2009 after he was appointed as a non-executive member of the bid board.

Mills, the deputy chairman of the London Organising Committee and a Tottenham director, stepped down from the 2018 bid board when it was streamlined late last year.

Before Triesman’s unwanted spell in the headlines, which has also seen him resign as FA chairman, England’s 2018 World Cup candidacy was generally viewed as having a good chance of success.

But the bid team now faces an uphill task to persuade Fifa’s executive to award them the event for the first time since 1966.

However, Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Gordon Taylor backed Coe’s assessment that the 2018 bid could still triumph.

"We are still big contenders – the train is still on the track, we’ve just not got the same passengers," he told BBC Radio 5 live.

Triesman’s departure from the 2018 bid and as FA chairman followed what he called his "entrapment" by the Mail on Sunday newspaper.

The revelations came only two days after the FA submitted their 1,752-page bid book to try to persuade Fifa to award England the 2018 event.

A European bid is tipped to get the 2018 tournament with England up against Russia and joint bids from Spain/Portugal and Belgium/Netherlands.

The other bidders, although they are mainly focused on the 2022 tournament, are Australia, the United States, Japan, Qatar and South Korea.

Triesman will be replaced as FA chairman by board members David Sheepshanks and Roger Burden who will be drafted in as acting joint-chairmen.

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Astronauts on the shuttle Atlantis’s latest mission to the space station make their first spacewalk on Monday.

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A woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder following the death of an 11-year-old boy at a premises in the Vale of Glamorgan.

The 48-year-old woman was arrested on Sunday after the child’s body was discovered in Rhoose.

A post-mortem examination is being carried out to establish the cause of death.

A major incident room has been set up at Penarth police station, South Wales Police said.

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With a multitude of tourists heading to South Africa for the World Cup, a question hangs on many lips. So how dangerous is the country?

South Africa is a place where a lot of violent crime happens.

That much is hard to dispute.

Each day an average of nearly 50 people are murdered.

In addition to these 18,000 murders each year, there are another 18,000 attempted murders.

Murder is a staple of the news. In April, it was white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche. Earlier this month, it was Lolly Jackson, the flamboyant owner of the Teazers strip club chain, killed at a house in Kempton Park, just outside Johannesburg.

In the run-up to the World Cup, British newspapers have been happy to convey a terrifying picture of South Africa.

One recently told its readers about "Cape Town’s culture of gangsters, drugs, rape, robbery and a murder every 25 minutes".

So should football fans fear for their lives at the World Cup?

It’s a complicated picture, says Johan Burger, senior researcher in the crime and justice programme at the Institute for Security Studies.

The first thing is that the South African murder rate is going down and not up.

"Contrary to what many people think, the murder rate, while still extremely high, is down by about 44% since 1995. That’s a huge decrease."

The geographical and social spread of murder might also be relevant to visitors.

"What is important to understand about our high crime rate is that we know from research that approximately 80% of our murders happen within a very specific social context, mostly between people that know one another.

"There is something wrong within some of our communities in terms of the social interaction and the social conditions."

In blunt terms, areas with problems have murder levels that can be wildly above the national average.

Kwa Mashu, a township outside Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, has the unfortunate honour of being dubbed South Africa’s murder capital by the media, with 300 last year. It took the unwanted honour from Nyanga, a township outside Cape Town.

These are not the kinds of areas that are regularly frequented by tourists.

Dr Burger says research done by other academics points to the social basis for a high crime rate in such areas.

"There are extremely high rates of unemployment in some areas. All of this leads to a large element of frustration. Often this is the thing that sparks violence.

"The gap between rich and poor is still widening and it leads to what is seen as relative deprivation. The people in the very, very poor communities, they see wealth.

"It is not just a gap, it is a visible gap. The situation is aggravated by poor service delivery. Many of our municipalities are in complete disarray, complete dysfunction. This then leads to dissatisfaction. People protest sometimes very violently."

There are many other crimes apart from murder which are seen as problematic in South Africa.

The national figure of 203,777 episodes of "assault with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm" might be alarming. It’s hard to compare this with the UK where statistics are grouped differently, though the latter has a larger population (61 million compared with South Africa’s 49 million.)

But like murder, many offences are geographically weighted, says Dr Burger.

Of the 18,438 house robberies in South Africa last year, 8,122 were in the province of Gauteng, which includes Johannesburg. The likelihood of being a victim is twice the national average there.

Carjacking is a category of danger that would be novel to most visitors from western Europe.

There are junctions which are signposted as carjacking blackspots, and there are areas where drivers will avoid stopping at red lights, particularly at night, preferring the risk of a fine to the risk of hijack.

"Many people may come in rented cars and then like everyone else they will run the risk of this," says Dr Burger. "Most of the time people are threatened or violently removed from the car [but] not seriously injured."

Unlike most categories of violent crime, recorded instances of carjacking are on the rise in South Africa. The police do their best to fight it, says Pretoria News crime reporter Graeme Hosken.

"We have had a problem with gangs following tourists from OR Tambo airport [near Johannesburg] and the cops cracked down on that. I take precautions. I’ve been nearly hijacked myself on an open freeway."

He advises:

Keep your car locked while driving Don’t stop for strangers or people who have broken down A blue light does not necessarily mean they are police If carjacked, do not offer resistance Carjacking is geographically skewed with half of the 15,000 happening in Gauteng

"There’s another crime that poses some risk to visitors and that’s street robbery," says Dr Burger.

"People are seldom seriously injured or stabbed or shot. In most cases people are threatened. Criminals will see the World Cup as a huge opportunity."

People can take a number of steps to reduce their chances of being robbed in the street, he says:

Avoid advertising. Don’t show you have valuables on your person Take precautions by trying to go to some of these places in groups of five, six, seven or more people Most importantly, make a point of seeking advice

"The locals know which places people should avoid and the times people should stay away from certain areas."

If England win their group and make it as far as the quarter finals, they will play in Soccer City, Johannesburg.

There are areas in the city that have a disproportionate level of crime. Ask a local and they may advise against travel to Hillbrow or Yeoville at night.

At the same time, people could also point out that every city has its bad bits.

"I wouldn’t go to dodgy areas in London, or the dodgy areas in Liverpool or Manchester," says Hosken.

But of course the crime issue is high on the agenda for the World Cup organisers.

The South African Police Service has prepared a plan that includes extra officers, high visibility policing, and deployment of specialist teams.

"I’ve seen the police plan, it’s extremely impressive," says Dr Burger.

But while there may be optimism about the police plans, there is still a deep sense of unease, says Hosken.

"The government says crime is going down, [but] 50 odd people are being killed every single day. There is scepticism about what is really happening.

"While crime might be going down, it is [often] extremely violent, armed robberies, hijackings. It is very in your face, it is very gruesome. The robbers will come in and not only attack a couple, [but] rape the wife, and severely assault the husband.

"People are worried about what the government is trying to feed them. The violence associated with crime is increasing."

And while the South African police can point to decreasing crime and the efforts they are making, fighting the fear of violence is harder.

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Insurance giant Prudential announces plans to raise £14.5bn from shareholders in the UK’s biggest rights issue to date.

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Robin Hood fails to hit number one at the North America box office as Iron Man 2 retains the top spot.

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A former Niger Delta militant has said Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan is the best person to solve the crisis in the oil-producing region.

Victor Ebokawe, also known as General Boyloaf, told the BBC that, because President Jonathan is from the region, he understands its problems.

Mr Ebokawe also said that Mr Jonathan should contest next year’s elections.

Militants have carried out attacks which have cost Nigeria millions in lost oil revenue over the years.

Last year, thousands of militants laid down their arms in return for promises of training and jobs.

But this programme showed signs of started to unravel during the power vacuum while former President Umaru Yar’Adua was sick.

He died earlier this month and Mr Jonathan was sworn in as president to replace him.

On Friday, President Jonathan visited the Niger Delta and said coordination of the amnesty should be improved.

Mr Ebokawe, a leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta who said he has spoken to Mr Jonathan, believes the Niger Delta’s leaders will be patient with the president as he tries to implement the amnesty.

Mr Jonathan has not said whether he wants to contest next year’s polls and the governing People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has said its candidate will be from the north, not a southerner like him.

"Nothing is going to stop him. He cannot tell us that he will not run," Mr Ebokawe told the BBC’s Network Africa programme.

"The presidency of Nigeria is not the birth right of a particular region," he said.

"[Mr Jonathan] is a man who is ready to rule Nigeria as one Nigeria."

The militants say they are campaigning for more of Nigeria’s oil wealth to be used to benefit local people but analysts say many attacks and kidnappings of oil workers are carried out by criminals trying to extract ransom payments.

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In the four years since her last album, singer Kelis has been divorced, had a baby – and qualified as a chef.

Flesh Tone is the Harlem-born star’s fifth studio album, and her first for will.i.am’s Interscope Records. Her David Guetta-produced dancefloor anthem Acapella went into the UK top five last month.

Kelis wrote much of Flesh Tone while pregnant with son Knight, who was born in July 2009. A few months earlier she had filed for divorce from US rapper Nas. They had married in 2003.

Kelis debuted in 1999 with Kaleidoscope, and went onto win a Brit award for best international breakthrough act.

Over the past 10 years, she has worked with a wide variety of artists and producers, including The Neptunes, Andre 3000, Bjork and Enrique Iglesias.

Kelis will be performing at the Glastonbury Festival on 26 June.

Here, the Milkshake star talks about the new album, her cookery qualification and her love of Captain Kirk.

Why the four-year wait for Flesh Tone?

Why not? I don’t feel the need to rush out each record, I’m not one of those artists who put them out every six months. I feel the need to live a bit in the interim and in order to write anything viable you have to give yourself some time and some space.

How does it feel to be back?

It’s like riding a bike – I definitely feel like I’m right where I’m supposed to be.

On one track you repeat the line "We control the dance floor…" Is that the album’s mission statement?

Yeah, I guess so. I want people to dance and have a great time and sweat it out again.

You wrote a lot of the album when you were pregnant. Does pregnancy make you more creative?

Artists work off extremes. Some of the greatest art comes from repression, turbulence in someone’s life or extreme glee and happiness.

Pregnancy is as extreme as you can get. Your body is physically and emotionally stretched to such great lengths that I think its inevitable.

So has motherhood changed your priorities?

Ther’s nothing more important than my kid. As an artist I have more to write about, I have more to think about. But I wouldn’t say that it’s changed my art.

The Acapella video is like a sci-fi film trailer. What’s the concept behind it?

I really just wanted it to be as visually strong as the record. It’s a story – imagine some sort of world’s end… sparse and savage and unreal.

On the song 22nd Century you sing "Religion, science fiction, technology". Do you like sci-fi?

I’m a science fiction fan in every possible way.

I used to be a huge Trekkie. I would torture my little sister. They would do Star Trek marathons and she literally would cry: "Not another episode of Star Trek, please!"

I loved Dictrict 9, I loved Avatar – anything from The Matrix to Terminator.

Do you fancy acting in a sci-fi film?

That’s a future I cannot foretell.

You’re a qualified chef. What was it like going back to school?

It was full-on Le Cordon Bleu – almost a year, five days a week, seven hours a day.

I think every adult should go back to school for some time and for something that they love. I think school puts things in perspective, to be avidly learning something every day is important – exciting.

Was there a point where you thought I prefer cooking to music?

Yes, I think that all the time. Not to the music itself but to the business of music.

Do you have a signature dish?

I’m good, I can pretty much do anything.

Flesh Tone is released on 17 May on Interscope Records.

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YouTube said it now gets over two billion hits daily – nearly double the number of people who tune into the US’s three prime time TV stations combined.

The news comes as the site celebrates the day five years ago when the first beta version of YouTube was launched.

Over seven months ago the video site clocked up one billion downloads.

"I see this great growth opportunity in the online video market and we are positioning ourselves to be a leader," co-founder Chad Hurley told BBC News.

"We are a stage and we give everyone in the world an opportunity to participate and that is being a video platform for creating a solution for people to not only upload and distribute their videos on a global basis but to find and share videos."

He also said that while the two billion downloads marked a real milestone "I feel we have much further to go.

"Two billion video streams is a large number but on average people are only spending 15 minutes a day on the site compared to five hours a day watching TV.

"I don’t think we could have ever planned or imagined we would get to the scale or the size we are today. We were mostly trying to create a video solution for ourselves based on our own frustrations. We are proud of what we have achieved so far but we have a lot of work ahead," said Mr Hurley.

The site was bought by Google near the end of 2006 for $1.65bn.

The early years

The slogan for YouTube is "Broadcast Yourself" which Mr Hurley said was a play on "be yourself and also captured in my mind the essence of the site which was to let people express themselves."

The first person to express themselves on the platform was fellow co-founder Jawed Karim who posted a 19 seconds long video called "Me at the Zoo". It was uploaded on April 23, 2005 and can still be viewed on the site.

Among the other videos that have made YouTube history is that of a wounded girl dying in front of a crowd during the Iranian election protests, a YouTube interview with President Barack Obama, Ronaldinho’s Nike advert and singer Susan Boyle’s performance on Britain’s Got Talent competition on TV.

"We wanted to create a level playing field that gave everyone that ability to be seen and heard," said Mr Hurley.

"Maybe early on people only recognised us or explained YouTube by placing it in a box but there are so many people on our site and we receive so much content over a 24 hour period, it can’t be about one thing.

"And so from cat videos to political videos to "how to" videos to entertainment – that is YouTube," added Mr Hurley.

Today it hosts channels for everyone from Queen Elizabeth to the Pope and from President Barack Obama to the Iraqi government.

"YouTube really is a phenomenon and is very much part of popular culture," said Catharine P Taylor, media blogger at news website BNET.com.

"It really is a game changer because it gives everybody a platform to broadcast from. There are many examples where an average citizen has become a big hit on YouTube and that is something that would have been impossible to contemplate five, six years ago."

The future

In those early days the site was known for hosting pirated snippets of TV shows or movies. Even today material gets pulled from the site because of issues over copyright.

"They have made a lot of progress about weeding out illegal content," said Allen Weiner senior vice president of research at Gartner.

"They are serious about it. Their future depends on it."

As a result YouTube has been working hard to win over content makers as it modifies its service to stream professional films and cash in on a trend towards internet television.

Industry watchers have said YouTube could possibly become part of the Google "media cloud" where people can access films, books, magazines tv shows and other digitised content.

"YouTube is going to change in a lot of ways in the next few years," Ryan Lawler of video site NewTeeVee.com told BBC News.

"I think we will see it on more devices and see it used more for live streaming. There are real opportunities for it to become a traditional content distributor like the cable channels. YouTube streams make up around 40% of all online video watched in the US, so there is massive scale there and lot of opportunity."

Analysts have predicted that while the site has struggled to reach profitability since its creation, 2010 could be its year.

Bloomberg News pointed out that the biggest challenge facing YouTube advertising is what makes it so popular – its user generated content. Many advertisers are wary of placing adverts that might run next to videos that might also offend or upset the audience.

"Obviously we want to work with everyone and show the value we can bring on multiple levels. It could be as simple as marketing a movie or show to our users and driving those audiences to another place for the experience.

"We are trying to create opportunities for everyone and this is not just about making big deals with major networks," said Mr Hurley.

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In recent weeks, I have been doing just what my mother said I should never do – eavesdrop.

But perhaps she would not mind so much if she knew I had been privy to conversations of the first ladies at five seats of power in Africa.

Indeed, the candid interviews, conducted by the BBC Network Africa’s Veronique Edwards, give a new perspective on the leaders of the continent and address issues ranging from power and politics to glamour and romance.

Listening to Sierra Leone’s Sia Koroma, Namibia’s Penehupifo Pohamba, Ghana’s Ernestina Mills, Zambia’s Thandiwe Banda, and Uganda’s Janet Museveni, the most striking thing is that these women care deeply about the condition of society.

As professionals in their own right, these women are actively promoting education and rural development and championing poverty eradication and the fight against HIV/Aids.

Mrs Koroma and Mrs Pohamba are both experienced medical professionals while Mrs Banda and Mrs Mills are teachers.

Family matters

The office of the first lady is not an elected one. This means they cannot directly intervene in the running of the country, despite their proximity to power.

However, some first ladies have been known to take matters firmly into their own hands to whip opponents into shape.

Our five ladies have subtle ways of dealing with their partners, too.

"Being a woman, we have our innate feminine tactics," says Mrs Koroma.

"If I call him ‘Mr president’ it means I want something from him. And I do call him ‘Mr president’ sometimes."

For Mrs Museveni, however, it is not enough to live with "power" – she has demanded some of it for herself as an elected MP and minister.

But her appointment to the cabinet, as well as public posts for other close family members, have led to accusations that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is running the country like a family business.

"I know that that is rubbish, I’m sorry to say this," said Mrs Museveni.

"But if there is anyone who takes the trouble to do everything by the law, it is my husband."

Uganda’s first lady quickly jumps to her husband’s defence when it is suggested that having come to power in 1986, he has overstayed his welcome with the voters.

"Every time he’s supposed to go back and ask for their support… they give it willingly."

She concludes by confirming that she will retire from active politics after seeking a second, and last, five-year term as an MP at next year’s general elections.

‘Beat about the bush’

Unlike in the West, where first ladies and their children are political tools to be deployed at will during campaigns, or to help attract sympathy for the man at the helm, African leaders are generally very protective of their private lives.

However, Veronique manages to uncover a private view of men who are actually very ordinary, vulnerable and – like many of us – awkward.

"I first met him while I was studying in Germany," says Mrs Pohamba, recalling how the future president of Namibia wooed her and eventually proposed.

"He acted as if he’d been sent by someone else, saying: ‘If there is someone who would like to fall in love with you, would you agree?’

"And I said: ‘It depends on whether I know the person. If I don’t, I won’t agree… so who is this person you’re talking about?’

"Then he continued beating about the bush and four hours later he said: ‘The person I’m talking about is myself’.

"I responded: ‘Wuh! Let me think about it’.

"We met again much later in Angola and fell in love and he proposed to me – on his knees."

Twin palpitations

If the Namibian president was having a hard time securing a future wife, Zambian leader Rupiah Banda, who already has grown up children with his late wife and grandchildren, had palpitations when he heard the news that he had become a father again.

"At the time, I didn’t know I was expecting," his wife said.

"I went to the hospital to check why my stomach was becoming so uncomfortable.

"After the scan the doctor asked me if I was pregnant and I said: ‘No’. Then he informed me that I was two months pregnant with twins.

"When I called my husband with the news, he was in shock. He said: ‘No, no…really?…No!’ He may have been expecting a child, but two was a pleasant surprise."

Zambia’s first lady says she would like to see the establishment of a formal office of the first lady with a government budget allocation to support her public work.

However, this is a view that has provoked controversy in some countries, with many people questioning the need for a formal role for first ladies describing it as a waste of money. They argue that because the first ladies are unelected, they are not directly accountable to the people.

Sweetie Pie

Ghana’s first lady does not have children of her own.

But as a teacher she is passionate about young people and works hard to promote literacy, especially for some of the girls in rural areas whose education is sometimes disrupted by social pressures, including men who prey on them.

But when at home, and away from her duties as a first lady, Mrs Mills spends time with her dogs, a habit she inherited from her father. One dog is called Tandy, another is Max. Then there is Candy and Sweetie Pie. With names like these it is hardly surprising that she talks to them all the time.

"They understand," she says, becoming animated.

"They lie on their back and I scratch their chest and they’re happy!"

Although wining and dining with the high and mighty should bring happiness to many people, Africa’s "first ladies" have their regrets.

‘No more discos’

Despite the fulfilment they get from serving their societies and helping to improve life in Africa, they miss one thing: freedom.

"I used to wear normal clothes that a mother with two kids would wear. You know, easy clothes like jeans and a T-shirt," Mrs Banda recalls.

"Now there are some clothes that I can’t wear because everyone – especially young people – look up to me; I need to set a good example."

For Namibia’s Mrs Pohamba, before her life was surrounded by bodyguards and state protocol, music used to be the food of her soul and body.

"I can’t dance any more… this house is like a prison… you’re not really free, not like how I was in the old days.

"I could go to the disco, and then return to my house and start dancing again and doing this and that. That is no more."

Mrs Koroma will also not mind leaving State House when the time comes. Although her husband is only in the middle of his first term in office, she is clear about an exit plan.

"There’s a golden rule in politics: You must know when to come in and when to get out.

"That is my motto and I’m going to stand by it. That exit is very important."

What do you think about Africa’s first ladies? Are they a force for good? Or a waste of money? Send us your comments using the postform below.

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The euro falls again on money markets as fears over the eurozone economies continue to undermine their currency.

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Five candidates who resigned from Hong Kong’s Legislative Council in January have won back their seats.

The group resigned in January to fight a by-election and force a discussion on the slow pace of democratisation.

The opposition pro-Beijing parties refused to take part as did the main Democratic Party, and the others were little-known candidates.

The poll angered Beijing and was heavily criticised in Hong Kong as a waste of taxpayers’ money.

The result, amid a record low turnout, came as no surprise.

The 17% turn-out in Hong Kong’s by-election on Sunday was way below the 30% the five main candidates wanted.

But they still toasted their victory, saying 500,000 of the city’s people had voted to show they cared about democracy.

China angered

But others saw the result differently.

As far as the pro-Beijing parties and government figures were concerned, it was a waste of taxpayers’ money, had unnecessarily incurred Beijing’s wrath, and showed that the Hong Kong public preferred more moderate discussions with the Chinese government.

The city’s leader, Chief Executive Donald Tsang, refused to vote in the poll, as did other government leaders.

While he is normally seen going to Mass, on Sunday Mr Tsang was not seen at all.

In fact, the only senior figure to openly support the by-election was Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen.

But what is not so clear is what the political fall-out of the by-election will be.

The more radical democrats from these two smaller parties may need to come back into the fold and take a more moderate approach to gradual electoral reform.

Currently Hong Kong’s chief executive is elected by a select committee of 800 people handpicked by Beijing.

Only half of the legislative council is directly elected. Some political scientists feel the government needs to allow more consultation with Hong Kong’s youth, who are disgruntled with the lack of a democratic voting system.

Meanwhile, one Hong Kong newspaper has reported that Democratic Party leaders could soon be having face to face meetings with senior government officials in Beijing.

If so, it will be the first time since the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

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