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Plans for the six-reactor nuclear facility have met with fierce opposition
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One person has died after police in western India clashed with locals protesting against the planned construction of a nuclear power plant.
Police said they were forced to open fire after protesters attacked a police station close to the proposed site in Jaitapur, in the state of Maharashtra.
Construction of the $10bn (£6bn) plant – expected to be the biggest in the world – is due to begin this year.
The proposal has sparked massive protests across the country.
Residents in the area gathered near the proposed site, expressing anger at the plan, which they fear threatens their traditional fishing grounds.
Madhukar Gaikwad, an official from the Ratnagiri district, said about 700 to 800 fisherman and villagers surrounded a local police station in the village of Nate and started to vandalise it.
“The mob burnt down the records room, destroyed computers and a TV set and put a police van on fire.
“We tried to disperse them by using tear-gas and cane-charge. We used plastic bullets as well, but nothing worked. Finally, we used live ammunition in which one person was injured who died on his way to the hospital,” he said.
More than 50 people were injured, including police officers.
Protests have been mounting over the proposed 9,900 megawatt, six-reactor facility, which is being built with technical help from the French energy giant Areva.
Environmental experts say that Konkan, the region in which Jaitapur lies, is one of the most biodiverse regions on earth – and claim it will be destroyed by the plant.
Last December, the Indian magazine Outlook titled an article about the Jaitapur plant “The rape of Eden”.
Others have expressed concern that the facility is being built in a seismically-active area.
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The four parties have laid out their plans for policing and justice in their manifestos
The leaders of Scotland’s four main political parties are to attend the Scottish Police Federation conference in Aviemore, as campaigning continues for the Holyrood election on 5 May.
All four have vowed to maintain police officer numbers but they have different policies on the structure of forces.
Labour and the Conservatives both want to merge the eight forces into one, and the SNP also wants a reduction.
The Lib Dems are the only party which opposes a cut in the number of forces.
The main parties have all launched their manifestos, which detail their ideas on policing and justice.
The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats both want an end to automatic early release of prisoners.
The Tories also want the reintroduction of prison sentences of fewer than three months to “restore confidence” in the justice system. The Labour Party supports this policy.
The SNP, meanwhile, has vowed to maintain funding for Community Payback Orders, where low-level offenders repay their debt to society by carrying out manual labour, rather than serving short jail terms.
The parties all have different policies on how to cut knife crime. The Conservatives advocate a nationwide knife amnesty, while the Lib Dems say the key is tackling gang culture.
The SNP have pledged to increase stop-and-search, while Labour wants to bring in six-month mandatory jail terms for anyone convicted of carrying a knife.
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Crowds were on the streets of Homs late on Monday
Thousands of anti-government protesters have occupied the centre of Syria’s third largest city, Homs, insisting they won’t leave until they bring down the country’s leadership.
A woman told the BBC by phone crowds were still large late on Monday.
Earlier, funerals were held for some of those killed in Sunday’s violence in the city, with crowds calling for the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.
Syria’s interior ministry has said the unrest amounts to armed insurrection.
“The course of the previous events… have revealed that they are an armed insurrection by armed groups belonging to Salafist organisations, especially in the cities of Homs and Banias”
Interior ministry statement
Eight people died in Homs on Sunday after soldiers fired on crowds protesting at the death of a tribal leader in state custody.
The opposition says the occupation of the city centre will continue until their political demands are met. These include the immediate lifting of Syria’s longstanding emergency laws and the release of political prisoners.
Activists say that checkpoints have been set up around the square to ensure that people coming in are unarmed civilians.
One opposition supporter, who said his brother was shot dead in Sunday’s protests, said volunteers were providing the demonstrators with food and water.
Another, Najati Tayyara, told AFP news agency: “More than 20,000 people are taking part in the sit-in at Al-Saa Square and we have renamed it Tahrir Square like the one in Cairo.
“It is an open-ended sit-in which will continue until all our demands are satisfied.”
The unprecedented wave of protests in Syria shows no sign of abating, despite promises of reform by President Assad, says the BBC’s Kim Ghattas.
The persistence of the protests and the number of people out on the street make Syria’s demonstrations even more striking then the other Arab uprisings, our correspondent adds.
Syria’s official news agency has also been reporting on events in Homs. It says three army officers including a brigadier-general, together with his two sons and a nephew, were ambushed and killed on Sunday by “armed criminal gangs” which then mutilated the bodies with sharp tools.
The northern town of Banias also saw anti-government protests on Sunday.
In a statement, the interior ministry said: “The course of the previous events… have revealed that they are an armed insurrection by armed groups belonging to Salafist organisations, especially in Homs and Banias.”
The BBC’s Lina Sinjab says using the Salafist allegation is seen as a threat to peaceful protests.
Many fear it means further violence by authorities against protesters under the pretext of fighting terrorist elements, our correspondent says.
President Assad has pledged reforms to try to calm weeks of protest, but protesters say the concessions are not enough.
Human rights groups say at least 200 protesters have been killed in the past four weeks as security forces try to quell the most serious challenge to Mr Assad’s rule since he succeeded his father 11 years ago.
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Most countries said they expected a cyber attack to disrupt energy supplies within the next two years
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Internet-based attacks on critical systems such as gas, power and water have increased around the world, a report suggests.
Security firm McAfee surveyed 200 IT executives working for utility companies in 14 countries.
Eight out of 10 said their networks had been targeted by hackers during the past year.
China was seen as the most likely source of attacks, followed by Russia and the United States.
The number of reported incidents was higher than in 2009 when just over half of those asked said they had fallen victim.
Most of the reported security breaches took the form of distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks.
These typically involve a network of computers, under the control of criminals, overwhelming a company’s internet-connected systems.
While such incidents have the potential to impact websites and corporate networks, researchers said it was unlikely they were intended to cut off energy supplies.
However, there remained a possibility that DDOS attacks could do more harm in future, according to Stewart Baker, a former US national security advisor to President George W Bush and one of the report’s authors.
“We asked what what the likelihood was of a major attack that causes significant outage.
“That is one that causes severe loss of services for at least 24 hours, loss of life or personal injury or failure of a company.
“Three quarters thought it would happen within the next two years,” he said.
Arguably the best known example of an internet-bourne threat disrupting an industrial system is the Stuxnet worm, which was discovered in 2010.
Analysis suggests that the malicious computer code was specifically designed to take control of machinery in either Iran’s Bushehr or Natanz nuclear facilities.
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Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility is thought to have been one of Stuxnet’s intended targets
While it was known that the worm had spread more widely than its intended target, McAfee’s research suggested the full extend of its reach.
Among those utility companies that had carried out a search for Stuxnet on their computer systems, 40% found traces of it.
“It probably didn’t result in any obvious interference with the systems, because it wasn’t designed to do that,” said Mr Baker.
“But the fact that it spread so widely and could have done so if it had been differently designed is very, very troubling if you are worried about cyber attacks by hostile nations or extortion attempts by well organised criminal gangs.”
Respondents were also questioned about how much involvement they had with their governments on tackling cyber security issues.
Japan came out on top, along with China and the United Arab Emirates, although the survey did not ask if that cooperation was voluntary or enforced.
The United Kingdom scored lowest of all those taking part in the study.
A Cabinet Office spokesman told the BBC that the situation had improved dramatically since the launch of its National Security Strategy in October 2010.
The policy document recognises cyber attacks as one of the top four national security threats facing the country.
“We have recently launched an initiative with the private sector to help develop greater awareness of the threats and better protection for dealing with them,” said the spokesman.
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Students read a special edition of a paper on their return to school
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Students have returned to the school in Brazil where a gunman killed 12 children on 7 April.
Those killed were between 10 and 13 years old, and all but two were girls.
The gunman, a former pupil at the school in Rio de Janeiro killed himself after being wounded by police.
The director of the school said the first days would be taken up by individual counselling sessions with the students and therapeutic activities such as painting.
A group of parents from the Tasso da Silveira school in the west of Rio met with local officials on Monday to ask for a permanent medical and psychological unit to be created at the school.
Local Education Secretary Claudia Costin said the classrooms where the shootings happened had been repainted to erase traces of bullet holes and blood.
She said the two rooms where the greatest number of pupils had been killed had been turned into a library and an IT room.
Revenge for bullying
On the weekend, officials released new videos recorded by the gunman, 23-year-old Wellington Menezes de Oliveira.
The gunman said he had been bullied at school
In one of them, he reads out the suicide note which was found on him after the shootings.
In the other one, he tells of the humiliations he says he suffered at school. In it, he says he hopes what happened “would serve as a lesson”.
Police say he went into a classroom with two revolvers and lined people up before shooting them in the head at close range.
Security video footage shows children running down hallways to escape as he reloaded his guns. He shot himself in the head after being shot in the leg by a policeman.
Four of the 12 pupils who were injured in the attack remain in hospital.
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Two lanes are now running on both carriageways along the stretch of the M1
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An audit of road and railways at possible risk from industrial accidents has been ordered after the scrapyard fire that caused major M1 disruption.
Friday’s blaze under an elevated section in north London saw lanes closed between junctions 1 and 4.
The Highways Agency and Network Rail are to provide details of all sites where activities below or near roads and railways take place.
The Department for Transport will compile a report in the next six weeks.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said: “It is crucial that we learn the lessons from this hugely disruptive event and ensure that we minimise the risk of something similar happening again.
“As well as identifying sources and categories of risk, the report will detail the options currently available for managing those risks, identify any gaps and make recommendations about how these should be filled.”
The review could affect many businesses operating close to motorways and stretches of railway.
Mr Hammond said: “It is vital that we quickly identify any action that needs to be taken to protect our critical transport infrastructure.”
The Highways Agency is responsible for roads in England while Network Rail looks after the rail network across Britain.
Mr Hammond added that Highways Agency staff had “worked tirelessly around the clock to reopen the motorway”.
The closures over the weekend came as thousands of football fans descended on the capital for the FA Cup semi-finals and London staged its annual marathon.
Two lanes are now running on both carriageways along the affected seven-mile stretch of the M1.
Steel pillars have been put up beneath a bridge which was badly damaged when the scrapyard fire caused concrete to explode. Engineers said it was a “miracle” the bridge had not collapsed because of the extent of the fire damage.
The Highways Agency said construction work on the bridge support was ongoing along with an assessment of other possible remedial works and warned drivers that delays could continue.
Motorists have been advised to check the Highways Agency website for the latest traffic information.
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A ship carrying injured people and migrant workers from the besieged Libyan city of Misrata has arrived in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi..
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The referendum on changes to the voting system for Westminster elections takes place next month
Campaigning on changes to the UK voting system will step up a gear later when senior politicians go head-to-head.
Prime Minister David Cameron and former Labour cabinet minister John Reid will share a platform to argue the case for the current first-past-the-post system.
Labour leader Ed Miliband and Lib Dem Business Secretary Vince Cable will urge a switch to the alternative vote.
The cases will be made at separate events in London less than three weeks before the referendum on the vote.
BBC political correspondent Gary O’Donoghue says the campaign has thrown up some strange alliances – none more so than the prospect of Mr Cameron getting on first name terms with one of Labour’s most ferocious anti-Conservative attack dogs of recent times, Dr Reid.
The prime minister will acknowledge that he and Dr Reid agree on almost nothing, except that changing to the alternative vote (AV) system would be bad for the country.
Mr Cameron will also argue that politics should not be some mind-bending exercise but more about what you feel in your gut – and he feels that AV is wrong.
The referendum choice
At the moment MPs are elected by the first-past-the-post system, where the candidate getting the most votes in a constituency is elected.
On 5 May all registered UK voters will be able to vote Yes or No on whether to change the way MPs are elected to the Alternative Vote system.
Under the Alternative Vote system, voters rank candidates in their constituency in order of preference.
Anyone getting more than 50% of first-preference votes is elected.
If no-one gets 50% of votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their backers’ second choices allocated to those remaining.
This process continues until one candidate has at least 50% of all votes in that round.
Q&A: Alternative vote referendum AV referendum: Where parties stand
Meanwhile, the “yes” campaign will see Mr Miliband rub shoulders with Vince Cable, who has found himself at odds with his Conservative coalition colleagues in recent days over immigration policy.
Mr Miliband will say that while AV is not a panacea, he believes it will improve politics.
As well as Mr Cable, he will share a stage with comedian Eddie Izzard, the Green Party’s Darren Johnson and Billy Hayes of the Communication Workers’ Union.
Mr Cameron has said that the campaign will not break the coalition – he and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg are in opposite camps when it comes to the issue of the voting system.
Both party leaders put opposing cases in television interviews on Sunday, ahead of the 5 May referendum.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are coalition partners but are on opposite sides of the campaign on changing the voting system for Westminster elections from first-past-the-post to the AV.
The Conservatives agreed to the referendum as part of the coalition deal, which also allows both parties to campaign on opposing sides.
Labour is split over AV – Mr Miliband is campaigning to change the system but other senior Labour figures, including former deputy PM Lord Prescott, want to keep first-past-the-post.
Labour MP and former minister Pat McFadden said he would be voting against AV, but he has not been impressed by either campaign.
“I don’t think the ‘yes’ campaign or the ‘no’ campaign have done a great job,” he told the BBC.
UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage said his party was backing a change to AV.
He told BBC Radio 4: “We’ll vote for it because first-past-the-post is broken, it’s hopelessly outdated in modern politics.
“From UKIP’s own perspective, I think AV will help us enormously because the wasted vote argument in general elections will be gone”.
Under the first-past-the-post system voters put a cross next to their preferred candidate while with AV voters rank candidates in order of preference.
These preferences could be used to decide the outcome in places where no candidate wins more than 50%.
A ComRes survey for the Independent on Sunday and Sunday Mirror – weighted to reflect those certain to vote – found 37% backed AV with 43% against, compared with a 36% to 30% split the other way in January.
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North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue said she had been brought to tears by the devastation in her state
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Search and rescue efforts are continuing in the US state of North Carolina after three days of storms and tornadoes killed at least 45 people across half a dozen states.
More than 60 tornadoes ripped through North Carolina, killing 21, the highest toll for any of the states affected.
Governor Beverly Perdue said on the NBC network’s Today show that she had never seen anything like the devastation.
She said homes in the state had been handled like paper dolls’ houses.
“The good news is that the tornadoes have left and things are brighter today in North Carolina,” Ms Perdue said, adding that federal officials were beginning their damage assessments.
Deaths from the tornadoes were also reported in the states of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Virginia.
The tornadoes first struck Oklahoma on Thursday before sweeping eastward, and some parts saw their worst tornadoes in decades.
The storms moved out over the Atlantic on Sunday.
More than 240 tornadoes were reported over the three days, including 62 in North Carolina, but the US National Weather Service’s final numbers could be lower because some tornadoes may have been reported more than once.
More than 60 tornadoes were reported in North Carolina, where officials confirmed 21 deaths
The North Carolina state emergency management agency said it had reports of 23 deaths from Saturday’s storms, but local officials have only confirmed 21.
Authorities in the city of Raleigh early on Monday were blocking access to a mobile home park of roughly 200 homes, where three children had been killed during the storms.
Ms Perdue said she planned to tour hard-hit areas in three counties in the state on Monday.
She added that the devastation she had seen on Sunday had left her in tears.
The governor said she had contacted President Barack Obama, who pledged his support, and that federal emergency workers had already been deployed to the state.
“We have in North Carolina a tremendous relationship with our federal partners, and have been through this so many times,” she said.
“That’s not a good thing. That’s a bad thing,” she added.
“It looked just like The Wizard of Oz”
Audrey McKoy Bladen County resident
Ms Perdue said on Sunday the number of tornadoes had been the highest since 1984, when tornadoes killed 42 people.
Hailstones the size of grapefruit were reported as the storms swept through the region, causing flash floods as well as tornadoes.
Trees and downed power lines still covered nearby roads on Monday.
Most of North Carolina’s 21 confirmed deaths occurred in two rural counties – 11 in Bertie and four in Bladen, about 70 miles (112 km) south of Raleigh.
In the Bladen County community of Ammon, Audrey McKoy and her husband, Milton, witnessed a tornado lifting pigs and other animals into the sky, as the storm struck their mobile home community.
“It looked just like The Wizard of Oz,” Mrs McKoy said.
Mr McKoy found three bodies in their neighbourhood after the storm, which spun their mobile home, had passed.
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Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the British scientist credited with inventing the internet, has said he fears the freedom of the online world is being put at risk by the demands of big business.
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There had been protests against the work the day before the attack
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A controversial photograph of a crucifix bathed in urine has been vandalised at an art museum in southern France, officials said.
The work, Piss Christ, by American artist Andres Serrano, was attacked on Sunday by three vandals who also threatened staff at the museum in Avignon.
A demonstration against the photograph drew some 800 protesters on Saturday.
The work also proved contentious in the US when it was first displayed in 1989.
Police said two people had attempted to enter the Collection Lambert art museum on Sunday morning with paint spray and a chisel in their jackets.
As a guard was removing the items, a third person took a hammer to the work, according the Associated Press.
The museum said in a statement the vandals physically threatened three guards before fleeing.
A second work, The Church, the torso of a nun with her hands in her lap, was also damaged.
On Saturday, a right-wing group held a protest to denounce the photograph as blasphemous and to call for its removal.
One museum worker told Reuters news agency they had received death threats by phone.
“We’re nervous and we have asked for protection from the police,” the employee said.
The museum said the exhibition, entitled I Believe In Miracles, would be open as usual on Tuesday with the damaged works on show.
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The BBC’s Komla Dumor says some people see Jonathan as an “accidental president”
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has appealed for an end to “unnecessary and avoidable” post-election violence across the north of the country.
Incumbent Mr Jonathan has emerged as a clear winner in the presidential poll, with the electoral commission saying he received about 57% of the votes cast.
Rioting spread across the Muslim north – the opposition’s powerbase – as the outcome became clear.
International observers have said the election was reasonably free and fair.
But supporters of Mr Jonathan’s main rival, Muhammadu Buhari, allege ballot-rigging.
The Red Cross says it believes many people have been killed in clashes with the police in northern areas of the country.
Analysis
It is the first time in Nigeria’s recent history that the election result has exposed the huge division between the Muslim north and Christian south.
Incumbent Goodluck Jonathan has won in nearly all southern states, which are predominantly Christian except for one, while his main challenger Muhammadu Buhari won in the Muslim north-east and north-west. Both candidates shared votes in the north central area which has a substantial Muslim and Christian population.
Elections in Nigeria are not necessarily about issues but about ethnicity, religion and regionalism. So historically they have been won as a result of either a formal alliance by political parties or – more recently – an informal agreement within the governing PDP party to alternate the presidency between north and south.
For this reason, the winning candidate – irrespective of region, religion or ethnicity – normally commanded a wide national spread. In 1999, Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian from the south, won the majority of the votes in northern Nigeria. However, the rotation was broken when Mr Jonathan succeeded to the presidency last year after the death of Umaru Yar’Adua, a northerner.
This election, described by international observers as the most successful for decades, seems to be compounding the country’s regional and ethnic divisions.
Homes of supporters of Mr Jonathan, a Christian from the oil-producing Niger Delta and the candidate of the governing People’s Democratic Party (PDP), were attacked in the cities of Kano and Kaduna.
The BBC’s Caroline Duffield, in the Nigerian capital Abuja, says General Buhari himself has yet to comment – but political pressure is growing on him to call for calm as well.
In a statement, Mr Jonathan said: “I have received with great sadness the news of sporadic unrest in some parts of the country which are not unconnected with last Saturday’s elections.
“I appeal to those involved to stop this unnecessary and avoidable conduct, more so at this point in time when a lot of sacrifice has been made by all the citizens of this great country in ensuring the conduct of free and fair elections.
“I call on all our political leaders, especially the contestants, to appeal to their supporters to stop further violence in the interest of stability, peace and well-being of this great country.
“No-one’s political ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian.”
Mr Jonathan was appointed to the presidency last year upon the death of incumbent Umaru Yar’Adua, whom he had served as vice-president. He staked his reputation on the election, repeatedly promising it would be free and fair.
Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) released final results on Monday, saying Mr Jonathan had won 22.5 million votes to General Buhari’s 12.2 million votes.
In Kano, the largest city in in the north, homes displaying posters of Mr Jonathan were set on fire, and gangs of young men roamed the streets shouting “Only Buhari!”
In Kaduna, where a 24-hour curfew has been declared, youths clashed with the police and military in areas to the north and south of the city, with the security forces firing tear gas and live ammunition.
Local TV stations reported that the Kaduna home of Mr Jonathan’s running mate, Vice-President Namadi Sambo, was set on fire. They said the city’s central prison was attacked and inmates released.
A lawyer travelling through Kaduna told the BBC’s Focus on Africa he had escaped from a mob in the city. He said youths armed with clubs and machetes were targeting people who did not look like they were indigenous to the north.
“My car was damaged [and] the windscreen was broken,” he said. “I told my driver… to start the car and take off and at that point they smashed the car. We managed to get away.”
In the central city of Jos, there is rioting in the Gangare area to the north of the city.
There are also reports of violent protests in the states of Gombe, Adamawa, Katsina and Sokoto.
And there are fears for the safety of the revered religious leader, the Sultan of Sokoto, who is now facing angry criticism over his support for President Jonathan.
While past Nigerian polls have been marred by widespread violence and vote-fixing, Saturday’s seemed to go generally smoothly.
Voters in many areas queued patiently for hours despite intense heat to cast their votes.
Nigeria: A nation divided
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has won all elections since the end of military rule in 1999. It won two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states last time. To win at the first round, a candidate needs at least 25% of the vote in two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states.
Nigeria’s 160 million people are divided between numerous ethno-linguistic groups and also along religious lines. Broadly, the Hausa-Fulani people based in the north are mostly Muslims. The Yorubas of the south-west are divided between Muslims and Christians, while the Igbos of the south-east and neghbouring groups are mostly Christian or animist. The Middle Belt is home to hundreds of groups with different beliefs, and around Jos there are frequent clashes between Hausa-speaking Muslims and Christian members of the Berom community.
Despite its vast resources, Nigeria ranks among the most unequal countries in the world, according to the UN. The poverty in the north is in stark contrast to the more developed southern states. While in the oil-rich south-east, the residents of Delta and Akwa Ibom complain that all the wealth they generate flows up the pipeline to Abuja and Lagos.
Southern residents tend to have better access to healthcare, as reflected by the greater uptake of vaccines for polio, tuberculosis, tetanus and diphtheria. Some northern groups have in the past boycotted immunisation programmes, saying they are a Western plot to make Muslim women infertile. This led to a recurrence of polio, but the vaccinations have now resumed.
Female literacy is seen as the key to raising living standards for the next generation. For example, a newborn child is far likelier to survive if its mother is well-educated. In Nigeria we see a stark contrast between the mainly Muslim north and the Christian and animist south. In some northern states less than 5% of women can read and write, whereas in some Igbo areas more than 90% are literate.
Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer and among the biggest in the world but most of its people subsist on less than $2 a day. The oil is produced in the south-east and some militant groups there want to keep a greater share of the wealth which comes from under their feet. Attacks by militants on oil installations led to a sharp fall in Nigeria’s output during the last decade. But in 2010, a government amnesty led thousands of fighters to lay down their weapons.
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