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Japanese evacuations beyond zone

A woman evacuee from Iitate village at a evacuation center about 40 km (24 miles) from Daiichi nuclear power plant

Residents from Kawamata and Iitate are now in evacuation centres

Residents have been moved further away from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant as the no-go zone is extended and repair works are halted.

People left their homes in the two towns of Kawamata and Iitate to spend their first night in evacuation centres.

Japanese engineers have abandoned their latest attempt to stabilise a stricken reactor at the Fukushima plant.

The power plant was badly damaged by the earthquake and tsunami on 11 March.

The new evacuation zone was decided upon last month as radiation levels were expected to increase, making the move necessary.

The towns are more than 30km (19 miles) from the Fukushima plant, which is continuing to leak radioactive material.

About 5,000 people have been moved into public housing, hotels and other facilities in nearby cities.

The mayor of Kawamata, Michio Furukawa, told the first group of evacuees: ”I know you are worried but we will overcome difficulties together”.

More evacuations are expected in the coming days.

Efforts to control the collapse of Fukushima are continuing to face problems.

The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), had intended to cool reactor 1 by filling the containment chamber with water.

But Tepco said melting fuel rods had created a hole in the chamber, allowing 3,000 tonnes of contaminated water to leak into the basement of the reactor building.

Tepco says it will come up with a new plan to stabilise the reactor by Tuesday.

The earthquake and tsunami killed thousands of people and left many more homeless.

The tsunami flattened buildings in fishing villages and port towns, and swept debris miles inland.

Cooling systems to the reactors were knocked out by the earthquakes, fuel rods overheated, and attempts to release pressure in the chambers led to explosions in the buildings housing the reactors.

The government and Tepco said it would take until next January to achieve a cold shut-down at the plant.

Last week the government agreed a huge compensation package for those affected by the disaster.

Analysts say the final bill for compensation could top $100bn (£61bn).

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

Retailers ‘to face tough decade’

Even in London – where sales are expected to grow more quickly – trade will not fully recover until 2013

UK retailers could be facing many years of poor sales growth, an economic think tank has said.

Consumer spending is expected to rise by only 2% a year in the 10 years up to 2020, according to Ernst & Young’s Item Club.

Spending is being weighed down by debt repayments, restricted lending and high inflation, with the prospect of interest rate rises yet to come.

The effect is expected to be harshest outside London, the Item Club said.

For the UK as a whole, spending is expected to rise by only 0.6% this year and by 1.3% in 2012.

And even though spending in London is expected to pick up by a relatively robust 1.5% this year, total spending in the capital – as across the whole country – will still not fully recover to pre-recession levels until 2013, the Item Club predicts.

“The squeeze on household budgets is only going to intensify this year, as the gap between high inflation and subdued wage growth continues to widen and we experience a second consecutive year of declining disposable incomes,” said Andrew Goodwin, chief economic adviser to the Item Club.

The research group forecasts that disposable income will fall again this year, by 0.1%.

Technology and leisure retailers are expected to be best positioned for any rebound in spending, while the outlook for hotels and restaurants is bleak.

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

England land extra European place

Fulham are likely to fill the extra place in the Europa League which Uefa has awarded England as part of the Respect Fair Play rankings.

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

Ex-Thai PM sister to run in poll

Yingluck Shinawatra is seen as a stand-in for her elder brother Thaksin

The sister of Thailand’s ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been named as the main opposition party’s candidate to contest the 3 July poll.

Yingluck Shinawatra would become the country’s first female leader if the Pheu Thai party wins the election.

The 43-year-old businesswoman has almost no experience of politics.

Thaksin Shinawatra was forced from power in a 2006 military coup and lives in self-imposed exile in Dubai to avoid a prison term.

Despite this, he still effectively controls the Pheu Thai party.

The election is the first since the army crushed an occupation by Mr Thaksin’s supporters in central Bangkok last year. More than 90 people died in the course of the prolonged protests.

The poll will also be the first electoral test for Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s government, which came to power in 2008 after a court dissolved the then governing party.

He is seeking the direct popular mandate his critics say he currently lacks.

Thailand remains deeply divided and analysts expect the election will be a very close race.

Yingluck Shinawatra was nominated unopposed to the number one position on the Pheu Thai party list.

Yingluck ShinawatraBorn 21 June 1967Youngest of nine children; elder brother is former PM Thaksin ShinawatraGraduate in political science and business administration, master’s degree, Kentucky State UniversityMarried to businessman Anusorn Amornchat; has one sonEx-president of Advanced Info Service (AIS), the country’s largest mobile phone operator, before it was sold to Singapore’s Temasek HoldingsCurrently president, SC Asset, a family business; she also manages the finances for Thaksin’s Pheu Thai PartyFirst woman to run for country’s highest political office

She is a successful businesswoman with little political experience but instant name recognition. The question is whether that will attract or repel Thai voters, says the BBC’s Rachel Harvey in Bangkok.

Thaksin Shinawatra still wields considerable influence in Thai politics, despite being in exile – but he is a hugely divisive figure, our correspondent says.

To his supporters, he is a champion of the disadvantaged who was unconstitutionally forced from power by powerful elites, backed by the military.

To his critics, Mr Thaksin was a corrupt and authoritarian leader who manipulated gullible voters.

His youngest sister, Yingluck, now has the job of galvanising the base without alienating potential swing voters on whom the outcome of July’s election may well rest, our correspondent says.

Yingluck Shinawatra, bidding to become the first ever female prime minister of Thailand, said she planned to use her attributes as a woman to promote national reconciliation and asked for the chance to prove herself.

“I am ready to fight according to the rules and I ask for the opportunity to prove myself. I ask for your trust as you used to trust my brother,” she told a party meeting in Bangkok.

“I will utilise my femininity to work fully for our country,” she said.

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

Singles hat-trick for Bruno Mars

Bruno Mars also featured on rapper B.o.B’s UK number one Nothin’ on You

Bruno Mars track The Lazy Song has climbed a place in the UK singles chart to make it a hat-trick of number ones from debut album Doo-Wops & Hooligans.

He knocked LMFAO’s pop-dance tune Party Rock Anthem off the top after four weeks while there was a new entry for Lady Gaga’s The Edge of Glory, at six.

Adele’s 21 topped the album chart for a 15th week while actor Hugh Laurie’s debut Let Them Talk went in at two.

His blues album features pianist Dr John and singer Tom Jones.

See the UK Top 40 singles chart See the UK Top 40 albums chart BBC Radio 1’s Official Chart Show

Adele’s debut album, 19, stayed at number three while there were new entries for the cast of TV show Glee’s latest collection at number seven, and Sade’s The Ultimate Collection, at eight.

In the singles chart, US rapper Pitbull’s Give Me Everything, featuring artists including Ne-Yo, climbed eight places to number four.

Pitbull is also featured in On The Floor, Jennifer Lopez’s reworking of Kaoma’s 1989 hit Lambada.

Lady Gaga, meanwhile, was also at 11 in this week’s chart with Judas – up 11 places – as well as with this week’s number 24, Born This Way.

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

Smallpox dilemma

The viral disease was eradicated over 30 years ago

Defeating smallpox has been labelled as one of science’s greatest success stories.

The disease once killed 30% of those infected, but after a global vaccination campaign it was declared eradicated in 1980.

However the variola virus, which causes the infection, is not gone. It exists in two laboratories, one in the US and the other in Russia. The question is about to be asked, once again: should they kill their stocks?

Smallpox factsCaused by the variola virusThe virus originated over 3,000 years ago in India or EgyptSymptoms include fever, muscle pain, headache, tiredness and the distinctive rashIt killed 30% of those infectedMore than 300 million people were thought to have died from smallpox in the 20th century aloneUp to 80% of survivors were marked with deep pitted scars, mostly on the face

The World Health Organization (WHO) will come to a decision at the 64th World Health Assembly this week.

It is not the first time the issue has arisen, it was first discussed at the Assembly in 1986 and has been the source of debate ever since.

Destroying the remaining stocks is seen in parts as the final chapter in eradicating the disease, otherwise there is always the risk of accidental release.

Others including the US and Russia argue for more research in case smallpox returns, possibly as a biological weapon.

They fear vials of the virus could exist outside of their labs. The genomes of around 50 strains of the variola virus have also been fully sequenced, and research has already shown that a virus can be built from scratch with such a blueprint.

Professor Geoffrey Smith, from Imperial College London, has been following the latest research on smallpox. He says studies have been focused on three areas – tests to diagnose the infection quickly and accurately, ativiral drugs to treat it and safer vaccines to prevent it.

He led a review of the state of scientific research on behalf of the WHO, which was published at the end of 2010, and concluded there had been “remarkable advances” in tests for smallpox.

Nearly one in three people who caught smallpox died

But the same could not be said with certainty for smallpox drugs and vaccines. While new candidates have been developed, they cannot be clinically proven as there are no human smallpox patients to test them on. Without trials to prove a medicine works, the endpoint for research becomes harder to define.

Professor Smith said: “It is fair to say the committee had mixed views on whether the research was there or nearly there but not quite.”

The US secretary of health Kathleen Sebelius says it would be premature to destroy remaining stores of the virus now.

She restated in a column for the New York Times her country’s commitment to eventually destroy stocks, but not yet.

She wrote: “We have more work to do before these safe and highly effective vaccines and antiviral treatments are fully developed and approved for use.

“Destroying the virus now is merely a symbolic act that would slow our progress and could even stop it completely, leaving the world vulnerable.”

But the man who led the WHO’s smallpox eradication programme from 1966 until the last case in 1977 disagrees.

Dr DA Henderson told the BBC: “I think it’s a very good idea to destroy. At this point the reasons for keeping it are very obscure. Group after group has looked at this and basically said there is no need to retain it.

History of a vaccine

In 1796, Edward Jenner extracted pus from a cowpox pustule on a milkmaiden and inserted it into a cut in the arm of an eight-year-old boy, James Phipps.

He was working from rural folklore which said milkmaids who suffered cowpox never went onto develop smallpox.

Jenner then proved that having been inoculated with cowpox Phipps was immune to smallpox.

In 1959 the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to eradicate smallpox.

The last natural case of smallpox was in Somalia in October 1977.

In September 1978 Janet Parker, a medical photographer at the University of Birmingham died after being accidentally infected with smallpox.

BBC History: Smallpox, Eradicating the Scourge

“We have done all of the productive research that we can do. It has been discussed fully and thoroughly by people around the world. Now is the time to destroy the virus as a further deterrent to anybody ever again producing it or using it.”

Professor John Oxford, a virologist at Queen Mary University of London, believes the bioterrorism threat is “a load of old tosh” but still argues in favour of keeping the virus.

He said the decision was “tricky” but added: “I don’t think there’s a strong argument to destroy stocks, just an instinctive feeling to do it, which is misplaced.

“It’s eradicating a whole species and you never know what the future might hold.”

The argument holds no weight with Professor Gareth Williams, whose book – Angel of Death – charts the history of smallpox.

“There is no point in keeping it really. It has been sequenced completely so it can be recreated in a test tube and if it comes back you’ve got as much virus as you could want.

“It’s just a vague sense of political unease keeping stocks, it has nothing to do with the scientific argument.”

No one knows what will happen when health ministers from the WHO’s 193 member nations discuss the issue.

Professor David Heymann, a former assistant director general for health security and environment at the World Health Organization, said there had historically been a split between the industrialised and developing countries.

He said developing countries have felt it is more important to deal with “known risks” than unknown risks like smallpox, while industrialised nations have different priorities.

Resolutions from the World Health Assembly are not legally binding, so the US and Russia cannot be forced to destroy stocks even if the majority of nations wanted it to happen.

The Assembly could reach a consensus agreement, such as postponing the decision, rather than forcing a vote because, as Professor Heymann puts it, “nobody wants to see the World Health Organization lose power” if its rulings are ignored.

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

Palestinians bury protests’ dead

Egyptians wave Palestinian flags during a "Nakba" demonstration in front of the Israeli embassy in Cairo on 15 May 2011

Nakba protests were also held in Cairo

Funerals are due to be held in Palestinian refugee camps in southern Lebanon following the deaths of 12 people on Sunday in demonstrations on Israel’s borders.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has said the Jewish state is determined to defend its sovereignty.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians and their supporters marched towards Israel from Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

In one incident, thousands from Syria entered the Golan Heights, Israel says.

There was also unrest in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In Cairo, Egyptian security forces fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators outside the Israeli embassy.

The protests were held to mark the Nakba, or Catastrophe – the Palestinian term for the founding of the Israeli state in 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians lost their homes.

Mr Netanyahu has warned against further protests on Israel’s borders.

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

Viewers wooed back to Eurovision

Next year’s contest will be held in the winner’s capital city of Baku

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More than nine million viewers in the UK watched Saturday’s Eurovision Song Contest, according to early estimates.

The audience peaked at 12.7m towards the end of the show as Azerbaijan won, while the average viewing figure for the three-hour broadcast was 9.5m.

This compared with 5.5m viewers in 2010, when the UK came last with a previously unknown act, Josh Dubovie.

Boy band Blue, this year’s UK entry, and Ireland’s Jedward generated greater interest in the annual contest.

Blue came 11th, whilst identical twins Jedward, who gained fame on The X Factor, streered Ireland to eighth place.

Italy’s Raphael Gualazzi took second place, followed by Eric Saade from Sweden.

Blue managed to notch up a respectable score – 100 points – compared with last year’s entry Dubovie, who came last with only 10 points.

At one stage Blue were top of the leaderboard

At one early stage during the voting process Bulgaria and Italy both awarded the UK high scores, making it briefly top of the results table.

Host Graham Norton joked: “Quick, someone take a picture.”

Last year’s winner Lena Mayer-Landrut, who represented Germany again, beat the UK by seven points to finish 10th.

Viewers at home in all 43 competing nations voted for their favourite song by phone or text message, which accounted for half of each country’s vote.

The other 50% was determined by five-member expert juries in each participating country.

The event, which was hosted by Anke Engelke, Judith Rakers and Stefan Raab, attracted 35,000 fans to the Fortuna Dusseldorf Arena.

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

Maternal torment

Tilda Swinton plays Kevin’s mother, who has a complicated relationship with her son

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What do you do if you don’t like your child – and he doesn’t like you either?

It is not a topic that is generally up for public debate, but Tilda Swinton’s latest movie – We Need To Talk About Kevin – has become very much the talk of this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The film, based on the best-selling book by Lionel Shriver, is written from the prospective of the perpetrator’s mother Eva, played by Swinton.

She is portrayed as a successful woman, who has everything – apart from a maternal bond with her son.

While he is pleasant and loving to his father, Kevin (Ezra Miller) and his mother are embroiled in a battle of wills which nearly destroys her marriage.

John C Reilly stars alongside Swinton as her husband and both actors immediately signed up to the movie.

But Swinton admits there were concerns about securing the funding because of the subject matter.

“The material is taboo status, the concept of a mother who doesn’t like her son. But it was a gamble we had to take, and we took a chance on audiences liking it,” she explains.

Eventually director Lynne Ramsay secured the money needed from BBC Films and the UK Film Council.

“You either have, or you are expected to have, an unconditional love – even if you don’t like your son or daughter. It’s in the world, it’s just people don’t talk about it”

Director Lynne Ramsay

And so far, the hard work has paid off, as reviews have been positive with The Guardian calling it “superb” and The Daily Telegraph singling out Swinton’s performance as “magnificent.”

Nevertheless, the Academy Award-winning actress is only interested in getting as many people to see the movie as possible.

“We struggled to make a very little movie in terms of money. But by getting into Cannes, we have given it the best shop front in the world,” she says.

With it being the only UK film this year in contention for the prestigious Palme D’Or prize competition, all eyes will be on how well the film does.

But director Lynne Ramsay is no stranger to winning awards at Cannes.

In 2002 the Scottish film-maker won the Cicae prize and the award of the youth for her movie, Movern Callar.

Ramsay says she was interested in the mother and son relationship because of witnessing so many strained parent and child relationships growing up in Glasgow.

“They lost their kids to crime or drugs and I saw that a mother’s love could be stretched when they’re stealing from you and abusing you, but you had to be there for them,” she says.

“That’s the thing, you either have, or you are expected to have, an unconditional love – even if you don’t like your son or daughter. It’s in the world, it’s just people don’t talk about it.”

Tilda Swinton, Lynne Ramsay and John C Reilly

The film, which premiered at Cannes, has been received well by critics

The film, she says, was “inspired” by the novel, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2005, rather than being a faithful adaptation.

But both the book and film share the same quality, in which the powerful storyline leaves the audience questioning whether Kevin was born pure evil or was damaged by the relationship he had with his mother.

“We’re not interested in giving people answers at all to the questions the film raises,” says Swinton.

“What we are saying is basically the title of the film – ‘We Need To Talk’.

“There’s this fantasy that motherhood is this pink and fluffy business that’s all hearts and Mother’s Day cards. Actually, anyone who has a family at all will know that’s not true. Families are bloody businesses. Mortality is a bloody business.

“The film looks at feelings, not facts. It’s very much told from Eva’s perspective as a mother, and the guilt and shame she feels, but it’s a fantasy and a horror story, not a movie about social realism.”

Swinton, whose other film credits include The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Burn After Reading, says her character only became a mother once Kevin faces punishment.

“You see a woman bearing the guilt of her son’s act. His violent actions are blamed on her, and we see that around us all the time,” she explains.

“If a man commits an atrocity, often his mother is questioned. One of the first scenes in the movie is when Eva gets slapped in the face by a complete stranger. She bears his sins.”

The Cannes Film Festival runs until the 22nd May 2011.

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

Cameron ‘settles emissions row’

By Roger Harrabin

Coal fired power station at Eggborough in East Yorkshire

Several ministers voiced concern that the competitiveness of British industry could be harmed

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David Cameron has moved to resolve a Cabinet row over the UK’s climate change targets, with an agreement on emissions to be announced on Tuesday.

This will see drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to 2027 and a overhaul of the way energy is produced.

But ministers worried about the impact on the economy and burdens on industry have secured a get-out clause.

The targets will be reviewed if European nations backslide on their own climate commitments.

The BBC understands the prime minister intervened after leaked letters showed a disagreement between energy and climate change secretary Chris Huhne and Lib Dem colleague, Business Secretary Vince Cable, on whether to accept the recommendations of the Committee on Climate Change on emissions cuts.

The official advisory body has urged the UK to accept a global agreement which roughly equates to an emissions cut of 50% – based on 1990 levels – by 2025.

The settlement – which will form part of the UK’s fourth carbon budget – is being categorised as a victory for Mr Huhne but the BBC understands the Treasury, the Department of Business and the Department of Transport refused to sign up to the deal without the get-out clause.

The agreement was due to have been finalised at the Cabinet’s Economic Affairs sub-committee on Monday but disagreements were so serious that negotiations were concluded outside the committee.

It is understood that Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin played a major role in negotiations while the prime minister personally intervened to broker a final agreement.

Mr Cameron is already under fire over environmental policy with critics saying he has failed to keep his promise to create the greenest government ever. If he had rejected the climate committee’s advice, environmentalists claim he would have lost all credibility.

The issue has divided coalition colleagues from within the same party, with Mr Cable understood to have infuriated Lib Dem colleagues by trying to block the 2027 target.

While some companies have been urging government to adopt the target to secure a low-carbon economy in the UK, Mr Cable promoted the position of the elements of the business lobby most likely to be threatened by it.

Meanwhile Foreign Secretary William Hague put the case for strong carbon targets to keep up with countries like China in the move towards low-carbon energy, and to retain the UK’s international moral leadership on the issue.

Labour have previously said that if ministers did not accept the committee’s recommendations in full it would amount to a “green betrayal” and accused Mr Huhne of failing to “show leadership” over the issue.

They say carbon reduction targets must not be watered down as part of efforts to alleviate red tape on industry.

Greenpeace described the agreement as “rare victory for the green growth agenda” in the face of what it said was “vehement” opposition from the Treasury and the Department of Business.

But Friends of the Earth said Mr Huhne should have gone further and accepted advice to tighten the UK’s existing 34% emissions reduction target, by 2020, to compensate for the cuts already achieved due to the recession.

A Department of Energy source defended the government’s handling of the issue, arguing that it would be wrong to pre-empt discussions underway in the EU and the UK was still arguing to increase the EU 2020 target from 20% to 30%.

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

Emin meets Humphrys

In the mid-1990s Tracey Emin, one of the so-called Young British Artists or YBAs, attracted attention by being controversial and rebellious. Fifteen or so years on, and she is said by some to have joined the Establishment.

John Humphrys from BBC Radio 4’s Today programme put that question to her when they met at Tracey Emin’s new exhibition Love is What You Want, at the Hayward Gallery in London.

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Tracey Emin’s Love is What You Want runs from Wednesday 18 May – Monday 29 August 2011 at the Hayward Gallery, London.

Click show captions for image details. All images and artwork subject to copyright.

Music courtesy Reliable Source Music. Slideshow production by Paul Kerley. Publication date 16 May 2011.

Emin’s hometown: Margate’s new Turner Contemporary gallery

AUDIO: Who wants £36,000 of Olympic tickets?

Stephen Hunt explains what he will do if he is successful in getting the £36,000 worth of Olympic tickets he applied for

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

Drug feud kills 27 in Guatemala

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The decapitated bodies of 25 men and two women have been found near Guatemala’s border with Mexico.

The bodies were discovered at a ranch in Peten province, 500km (310 miles) north of the capital.

The chief of police said the killings were probably linked to a battle between rival drug gangs fighting for control of the area.

Northern Guatemala is an important transit point for drugs smuggled from South America to the United States.

“This is the worst massacre we have seen in modern times,” police spokesman Donald Gonzalez told Reuters.

Army spokesman Col Ron Urizar said dozens of soldiers had been sent to the Mexican border to prevent any suspects from fleeing the country, El Pais reported.

He said ground and aerial surveillance was being carried out in co-ordination with the Mexican authorities.

Officials said the victims appeared to have been ambushed by gunmen.

They are investigating whether the deaths were related to the Zetas drug gang, which has been expanding its operations into Guatemala from Mexico.

There are also suspicions the massacre was linked to the killing of Haroldo Waldemar Leon in the same area on Saturday.

He was the brother of alleged drugs trafficker Juan Jose “Juancho” Leon, who was shot dead by the Zetas in 2008.

Guatemalan law enforcement officials say the gang has increasingly moved its operations south since Mexican President Felipe Calderon stepped up his country’s fight against the drugs trade.

In February, the Guatemalan government lifted a two-month siege of the Alta Verapaz province – just south of Peten – in an attempt to combat the Zetas.

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

Ai Weiwei gets first family visit

Ai Weiwei poses with his installation Sunflower Seeds at the Tate Modern gallery in London in October 2010

Ai Weiwei was arrested trying to board a Hong Kong-bound plane out of Beijing

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The detained Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has been allowed his first contact with his family since his arrest more than 40 days ago.

The artist met his wife at an unknown location on Sunday and told her he is well, his sister told the BBC.

Mr Ai is said to be under investigation for suspected “economic crimes”.

The artist is a vocal critic of the government, complaining about a lack of basic freedoms and often incorporating these political themes into his work.

Ai Weiwei’s wife Lu Qing was taken by Chinese police to meet her husband on Sunday afternoon.

The artist’s sister told the BBC Lu Qing was summoned to a police station and taken to another location where she was allowed a brief meeting with her husband.

AI’S TANGLES WITH AUTHORITIESSupported online campaign to compile names of children who died in 2008 Sichuan earthquake – many in schools whose construction was allegedly compromised due to corruptionIn August 2009, beaten up by police in Sichuan while trying to testify for dissident Tan ZuorenAlthough a co-designer of Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Olympics stadium, he later disavowed the project, condemning China’s hosting of the Games as “fake and hypocritical”His frequently censored blog was read by 10,000 people a day until shut down by authorities in May 2009Ai Weiwei is a “maverick” who “chooses to have a different attitude from ordinary people toward law”, the Global Times said on Wednesday

Mrs Lu does not know where that location was, but thinks it was only used for the meeting – she said she did not believe her husband was being held there.

She reported that Mr Ai told her those holding him were taking good care of him, he was healthy and she should not worry.

However the meeting was very brief, she said, and there were many other people present, some of them taking notes, so she was afraid to talk much more with her husband.

The family were then warned by police not to discuss the visit with the media as they were told it could “be bad for Mr Ai’s case”.

His family had been demanding to know if he was safe and well as more than 43 days have passed since Mr Ai was detained by police at Beijing’s airport, says the BBC’s Damian Grammaticas in Beijing.

He had not been allowed any contact with his lawyers or his family.

Calls by artists and governments worldwide for information had not produced any response from China’s authorities.

China’s foreign ministry has insisted that Mr Ai’s case has “nothing to do with human rights or freedom of expression”.

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

VIDEO: Internet craze ‘planking’ turns fatal

Police in the Australian city of Brisbane say a man who fell to his death from a seventh floor balcony was taking part in the internet craze of “planking”.

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