A court in Greece has sentenced two Greek sprinters to suspended jail sentences for staging a motorcycle crash to avoid a doping test.
Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou were found guilty of perjury and sentenced to 31 months in prison each.
Their coach Christos Tzekos was sentenced to 33 months. The sentences were suspended pending appeal.
The sprinters had said an accident caused them to miss a drugs test on the eve of the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
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Photos of the models have caused outrage among some Indian groups
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Images of the Hindu goddess of wealth displayed on swimwear at an Australian fashion show have sparked a legal battle in India.
The Allahabad High Court has issued notices to the Hindustan Times for publishing the photos that show female models wearing the swimwear.
Images of the goddess, Laxmi, were displayed on the garments.
The fashion show attracted worldwide media attention and was held in the Australian city of Sydney last week.
Pictures of the controversial swimwear were published in many newspapers, leading to protests in towns and cities across India.
Protesters belonging to radical Hindu groups such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal took to the streets of Delhi on Monday, shouting slogans against the Australian government and swimwear designer Lisa Blue.
Protester Jai Bhagwan Goyal told the Reuters news agency that those who organised the Australian event should be arrested.
“The sentiments of billions of Hindus have been hurt and this issue will not get resolved by presenting an apology. We feel this is a deliberate act to get cheap publicity.”
The court on Tuesday issued notices to the Press Council of India and the state and central governments requiring them to explain their position over the issue.
Protests have been held all over India
It said that the Indian government should convey to the Australian government how the swimwear display had offended the feelings of the Hindu community.
Last week one of those petitioning the court wrote a letter complaining about the publication of the photos in newspapers.
The letter demanded action against the publisher of the newspaper and Ms Blue.
Lawyers have argued that the newspapers should not have published such offending photos and the Indian government should urge the Australian government to take action against Ms Blue.
The BBC’s Ram Dutt Tripathi in Lucknow says that the matter will be addressed again in the courts within six weeks.
In the meantime some newspapers have published a statement by Ms Blue saying the production and sale of the swimwear had been stopped.
The company has apologised for hurting the feelings of the Hindu community.
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By Richard Black
Sharks are among the species accidentally entangled in purse seing nets
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Scientists are embarking on a two-month expedition in the Pacific aimed at finding ways to reduce the damaging accidental toll of tuna fishing.
They want to find techniques that help fishermen find the abundant skipjack tuna without also catching sharks, turtles, or threatened tuna species.
The scientists will sail on board a tuna purse-seine vessel from Ecuador.
Knowledge gained on the trip will be used to develop fishing techniques or new gear that are much more selective.
This could entail fishing at different times of day, at specific depths under the waves, or by more targeted use of fish aggregating devices (FADs).
“The overall objective is to explore some potential options for reducing the mortality of bigeye tunas and other ‘undesirable’ species while maximising catches of skipjack,” said research leader Kurt Schaefer.
“We’re looking for ways in which we can learn to harvest the skipjack without impacting other species such as bigeye and yellowfin – we’re not yet testing what we consider to be practical solutions,” he told BBC News.
Dr Schaefer has been a research scientist with the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) – one of the bodies charged with regulating tuna fishing in the open sea – for more than 30 years.
While the small, fecund skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis) forms the basis of the canned tuna industry, the bigeye (Thunnus obesus) is an endangered species in the Pacific, primarily because of fishing.
The cruise departs from Ecuador on Tuesday, using the chartered commercial fishing vessel Yolanda L.
For reasons that are not entirely clear, fish and other marine creatures tend to congregate around floating objects such as logs.
Fishermen have learned to take advantage of this, deploying buoys – FADs – equipped with GPS and sonar.
An underwater ROV (here being tested) will be deployed to film tuna in the nets
When the sonar senses that fish have gathered, the buoy signals the parent vessel, which steams alongside to collect its haul.
Using a purse seine net, the boat can encircle and capture the entire shoal.
The scientists hope that understanding what makes various species move towards the FAD and then leave it again could open doors to fishing selectively.
“One of the things we’re doing is behavioural studies using acoustic tags and telemetry,” said Dr Schaefer.
“We’ll be tagging these species, and trying to see whether there are times when you see separation eithed horizontally or vertically in the water, and whether you could use this to separate out catches.
“We’ll also be looking for times of day at which the species might naturally separate – times when the skipjack, for example, might move away from the FAD.”
Smaller species may be trying to shelter from predators, while bigger ones may see it as an easy source of food.
The various species may also be attracted away by different signals, such as water temperatures.
A remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) will be deployed to film fish behaviour around the FAD, and after entrapment in the purse seine net.
If different tuna species separate inside the net – some swimming high and others low, for example – that could also form the basis of a separation method.
Having spent long periods at sea on fishing vessels, Kurt Schaefer believes experienced skippers may already know ways of targeting skipjack.
New models of FAD could in future separate different species of tuna, and other fish
The scientists will analyse how well the Yolanda L’s skipper is able to predict catches.
This research cruise is an initiative of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF), which brings scientists together with people from the seafood industry and from environmental groups.
It is the first of a number of cruises planned for different parts of the world’s oceans.
Whereas some environmental groups argue for the abandonment of FADs, the ISSF believes this is neither feasible nor desirable.
“It’s the philosophy of ISSF and our partners that abandoning a fishery will not help to improve it,” said ISSF president Susan Jackson, previously of food giants Del Monte and Heinz.
“We must help to improve practices that make fishing for tuna more sustainable.”
The bluefin – the most talked about tuna species recently, and the most prized for sushi – is not a factor in this cruise.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Pastor Martin Ssempa is known for his fiery rhetoric against homosexuality
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A backer of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill has told a parliamentary committee he does not support the proposal of the death penalty for some homosexual acts.
But Pastor Martin Ssempa urged MPs to pass the legislation, which tightens laws against homosexuality.
The bill’s proponents and opponents have been making their case during two days of public committee hearings.
The bill, first introduced in 2009, sparked international condemnation and had been quietly shelved until now.
Uganda is a largely conservative society and many people condemn homosexuality both as unAfrican and unChristian.
But in recent years, some gay rights groups have been set up in the country.
A parliamentary spokesperson told the BBC it was unlikely MPs would get to vote on the bill before the current parliamentary session ends this week.
A new parliament is to be sworn in next week, following elections in February.
“If we criminalise the LGBT community further, it will drive Ugandans further underground and compromise the relationship of medical, counsellors and clergy that is sacrosanct and needs to remain confidential”
Christopher Senyonjo Anglican bishop
Uganda has come under intense international pressure over the bill, which proposes increasing the penalties for homosexual acts from 14 years in prison to life.
It also proposed the death penalty for a new offence of “aggravated homosexuality” – defined as when one of the participants is a minor, HIV-positive, disabled or a “serial offender”.
But according to AP news agency, MP David Bahati, who proposed the legislation, last month said that the death penalty “was something we have moved away from”.
Pastor Ssempa also rejected this clause but nevertheless urged the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee to back the bill.
“The parliament should be given the opportunity to discuss and pass the bill, because homosexuality is killing our society,” AP news agency quotes him as telling the MPs.
An opponent of the bill, Anglican Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, told the committee that the proposals would not stop homosexuality and further criminalising gay people would adversely affect the fight against HIV/Aids.
Under the proposals, people could face jail for failing to inform the authorities if somebody confided their homosexual activities to them.
“If we criminalise the LGBT [lesbian gay bisexual and transgender] community further, it will drive Ugandans further underground and compromise the relationship of medical, counsellors and clergy that is sacrosanct and needs to remain confidential,” US-based SDGLN website, which had a witness at the hearing, quoted the bishop as saying.
MP David Bahati has said the death penalty clause is likely to be dropped
“How can we expect doctors to treat everyone when this bill will require them to report on their patients who are LGBT?” he said.
Some gay activists in Uganda have said the public hearings were intended as a diversionary tactic from recent protests over high food and fuel prices.
In January, David Kato, a campaigner who led condemnation of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, was murdered not long after suing a paper that outed him as gay. Police denied the killing was because of his sexuality.
Three months before the murder, Uganda’s Rolling Stone newspaper had published the photographs of several people it said were gay, with the headline “Hang them.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Ronan Kerr was one of hundreds of young Catholics who have joined the PSNI since 2001
Police investigating the murder of Constable Ronan Kerr have arrested a 36-year-old woman.
Constable Kerr, 25, died when a booby-trap bomb exploded underneath his car in Omagh, County Tyrone, on 2 April.
The woman was arrested in Pomeroy, County Tyrone, on Tuesday. She is being held at Antrim police station.
A search is taking place at a house in Pomeroy. A 33-year-old man appeared in court last month charged in connection with the murder of Constable Kerr.
Gavin Coyle, from Culmore Park, Omagh, was charged with possession of explosives, firearms and articles likely to be of use to terrorists at Dungannon Magistrates Court.
No bail application was made and he was remanded in custody for four weeks.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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French national football coach Laurent Blanc has been cleared by the country’s sports minister of race discrimination.
Chantal Jouanno said there was no evidence that Blanc had broken any laws, by discussing putting a quota on the number of black and Arab players representing French youth teams.
Blanc has said his comments were taken out of context.
Ms Jouanno said the football federation would decide the future of suspended technical director Francois Blaquart.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The BBC’s Jim Muir says a protest in Damascus on Monday evening was broken up – this footage purportedly shows protesters being taken away by security forces
Reports from Syria say columns of tanks have moved towards the central city of Hama, which has been the scene of anti-government protests in recent weeks.
There have also been arrests in the nearby city of Homs, and in the coastal town of Baniyas, where a crackdown by troops is continuing, activists say.
Earlier, the UN said it was concerned it had been unable to get humanitarian aid to the embattled city of Deraa.
Deraa has been cut off for two weeks. Dozens are said to have been killed.
Meanwhile, the European Union has announced an embargo on exports to Syria of arms and equipment that could be used for internal repression.
The bloc also imposed a visa ban and asset freeze on 13 officials and associates of the Syrian regime identified as being “responsible for the violent repression against the civilian population”.
“The aim of these measures is to achieve a change of policy by the Syrian leadership without further delay,” said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in a statement.
President Bashar al-Assad is not on the sanctions list, but it does include his brother Maher, who heads the Republican Guard and has been accused of overseeing the crackdown, and their cousin Rami Makhlouf, who is one of Syria’s richest men and has been accused of bankrolling the regime.
The government says it is combating an armed insurrection by “armed terrorists” and has deployed troops and tanks to protect civilians.
On Monday, the army moved into the western Damascus suburb of Muadhamiya. A human rights activist told the BBC that at least three people were killed and many others wounded in clashes. About 200 were arrested, he added.
Security forces are continuing their efforts to crush dissent in Homs, Syria’s third city. Hundreds were arrested as troops divided up the city to prevent any mass protests, activists said. Electricity and telephone lines were also cut.
Gun and tank-fire were heard but the number of casualties was unknown.
Activists also said that more than 250 people had been arrested in Baniyas, including a 10-year-old boy. Water, electricity and telephone lines were cut, and tanks were deployed on roads leading to the town, they added.
Foreign journalists have not been allowed to enter Syria, so reports from the country are difficult to verify independently.
In central Damascus, a small group of about 100 youths sang protest songs on Monday evening in Arnous Square as shoppers bustled around them.
Video footage purportedly of tanks on the move near Homs has been published on the internet
They called on the army to “stop the gunfire”, end the sieges of flashpoint cities such as Deraa, and said national dialogue was the solution.
But plainclothes security men moved in and broke up the gathering, bundling the protesters roughly into vans and driven off, amateur video footage showed.
Later, unverified footage was published on the internet showing columns of tanks moving towards Hama, to the north.
The BBC’s Jim Muir in Beirut says Hama was virtually wiped out in 1982, with tens of thousands killed after an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood.
There have been protests in the city in recent weeks and now there are fears that it may be subjected to the kind of crackdown already being felt in Homs, Baniyas and Deraa, our correspondent says.
Meanwhile, the UN said it was increasingly concerned about the situation in the southern city of Deraa, which has been cut off since troops and tanks were deployed there two weeks ago.
Syria’s government says it is combating an armed insurrection by “armed terrorists”
A humanitarian mission was to go there on Sunday following a request by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, but access was refused.
“We were expecting to go in with a mission to Deraa yesterday. That was postponed by the government,” the UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos, said.
She said no reason had been given, but added that she had been assured relief teams would be allowed to “go in later this week”.
The UN Relief and Works Agency (Unwra), which looks after the 30,000 Palestinian refugees in the Deraa area, has also not been able to get emergency medical supplies through to them.
The agency said it was particularly concerned for 120 patients there who depend on it for supplies of insulin.
Officials said last week that troops were being pulled out of Deraa, where dozens of people have been reported killed and many hundreds arrested.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 621 civilians and 120 security personnel have been killed since demonstrations pro-democracy protests began in March. Another Syrian rights group, Sawasiah, says more than 800 civilians have been killed.
Officials dispute the civilian toll and say about 100 soldiers have died.
The unrest poses the most serious challenge to President Assad since he succeeded his father, Hafez, in 2000.
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Qamishli
A mobile phone snapshot, reportedly taken in Qamishli on 29 April, shows protesters carrying banners written in Arabic and Kurdish demanding democracy.
Damascus
This footage, which the BBC cannot verify, seems to show demonstrators in Midan, central Damascus, on Friday afternoon. A source in Damascus says he could see a lot of security and police officers in the main areas of Damascus after protests began after Friday prayers finished.
Talbisah
This unverified video seems to show a peaceful protest in Talbisah. Moments into the footage, tanks fire on unarmed civilians. Wyre Davis reports.
Deraa
A soldier walks past men in civilian clothes lying on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs in this still photo taken from an amateur video.
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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
