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Some residents of the city of Misrata have managed to flee on a ship which has just arrived in the rebel-held city of Benghazi.
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 Andrew Harding reports from the western town of Duekoue, where Un workers have found hundreds of bodies.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Former minister Andimuthu Raja was charged on Saturday in connection with the telecoms sale An Indian parliamentary panel investigating the controversial award of telecoms licences is due to question some of the country’s biggest tycoons.
Ratan Tata and Reliance’s Anil Ambani are among those due to appear at the hearing, which begins on Monday.
Police say that in 2007-08, when India issued 122 new telecoms licences, several rules were violated and bribes were paid to favour certain firms.
On Saturday, a former minister was charged in connection with the sale.
Andimuthu Raja, who was telecoms minister at the time of the auction, is charged with conspiracy, forgery and fraud.
The unfolding story has shaken both government and business establishments.
Several of the licences were issued to firms with no experience in the telecoms sector in a process described by an auditor’s report as lacking transparency and “undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner”.
It said some licences went to companies that were ineligible, or had suppressed relevant facts, and cost $39bn in lost revenue
Police have accused Mr Raja of having taken bribes from two firms which are now the local joint venture partners of Telenor and Etisalat.
The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel some 85 licences which the audit report says were issued to firms which were ineligible for them.
Many of India’s biggest business names have already been questioned, including billionaires Anil Ambani, chairman of Reliance ADA group, and Prashant Ruia, chief executive of Essar Group.
Mr Raja denies wrongdoing. Last year he was forced to resign over the issue.
India has the world’s fastest growing mobile market, with about half a billion subscribers to date.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The rise in the price of a first-class stamp is a record in cash terms Higher UK postage prices have come into force – with a first-class stamp now costing 46p.
This is a record 5p rise in the cost of sending standard letters weighing up to 100g by first-class post.
Royal Mail has also increased the cost of a second-class stamp by 4p to 36p. A first-class, large letter stamp has risen by 9p to 75p, and by 7p to 58p for second-class mail.
A watchdog described the inflation-busting rise as “disappointing”.
The average UK household spends around 60p a week on stamps, according to Royal Mail. These price rises would add 6p to this amount, it said.
However, in cash terms, the 5p rise is the highest recorded for first-class stamps.
Regulator Postcomm gave permission for the increase in November, and the plans were announced by Royal Mail a month later.
Postcomm said the changes would help Royal Mail to fund its modernisation programme and help safeguard the one-price-goes-anywhere universal service in the UK.
Moya Greene, of Royal Mail, said that the decision had not been taken lightly.
“We have thought carefully about these increases as we are conscious of the difficult economic circumstances our customers are facing,” she said.
“No-one likes to pay more and we regret having had to take these tough decisions on pricing. After these increases, we will continue providing value for money as our prices will still be among the lowest in Europe.
“We are investing heavily to modernise our operations, which is all about providing our customers with the services they need in today’s open, highly competitive postal marketplace.
“With the sharp declines in mail volume, our revenues are falling. That means if we do not generate more income, we will simply not be able to keep funding our six-days-a-week collection, sorting, transport and delivery operation to the UK’s 28 million homes and businesses.”
Philip Cullum, of watchdog Consumer Focus, said people would be extremely disappointed by the latest rise in prices above inflation.
“Royal Mail needs to modernise but customers are being asked to pick up the tab. In return, they will expect to see a far more efficient, effective and competitive service,” he said.
Hosiery business UK Tights uses Royal Mail to send its orders to customers.
“This cost increase as well as the VAT increase will have a direct effect on our profitability. For us there is no real alternative to Royal Mail as we send low-cost small packets,” said Jonathan Barber, who set up the business with his wife Dawn.
“Royal Mail has no competition in this market sector. We feel this needs to change.”
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Misrata evacuees share their stories with the BBC’s Christian Fraser
A Turkish humanitarian ship carrying more than 250 injured people from the Libyan city of Misrata has arrived in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
Misrata, the only city in the west still controlled by the rebels, has been under siege by forces loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi for several weeks.
Doctors on board the ship said many people had extremely serious injuries.
Meanwhile, the eastern oil town of Brega has seen continued fighting between rebels and pro-Gaddafi forces.
A BBC correspondent says an uneasy stalemate is developing.
“We have no water, no electricity. We don’t have medicine. There are snipers everywhere”
Ibrahim al-Aradi Injured Misrata resident
Government troops are reported to be holding ground near its university, but are reluctant to engage rebels because of the risk of Nato air strikes.
The poorly armed and disorganised rebel forces are unable or unwilling to push on towards Brega and are calling for more help from the West.
Meanwhile, Libya’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Abdul Ati al-Obeidi, has told the Greek prime minister that Col Gaddafi wants the fighting to end.
“It seems that the Libyan authorities are seeking a solution,” Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas told reporters in Athens.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, ordered the Ankara, a car ferry that had been turned into a makeshift hospital, into Misrata on Sunday after it had spend four days waiting for permission to dock.
Many of the patients have extremely serious injuries The ship, which was also carrying medical supplies for doctors in Misrata, arrived under cover from 10 Turkish F-16 fighter jets and two navy frigates, Turkish consular official Ali Akin told the Reuters news agency.
With heavily armed Turkish police special forces standing by, the injured people were taken aboard and laid on mattresses on one of the car decks, above which saline drips were hung. Some were accompanied by their relatives.
Mr Akin said the ship had to leave early after a large crowd – including hundreds of Egyptians – pressed forward on the quayside hoping to escape.
The BBC’s Jon Leyne, who went on board the Ankara, says many of the patients have extremely serious injuries, including some amputations.
One man lost part of his leg in an explosion as he was taking his wife into hospital for treatment. A 13-year-old boy described how he was shot by a sniper.
Mohammed Muftah, who had shrapnel wounds on his legs, back and neck, said Col Gaddafi’s troops had “killed entire families” in residential areas.
“I have a neighbour who lost his wife and his three children,” he told the AFP news agency. “They did it just to terrorise people.”
Our correspondent says everyone had stories of the ever worsening conditions in Misrata. They told him that much of the city had no water or electricity and no-one was safe from shelling or sniper-fire.
As the ship arrived in Benghazi several hundred rebel supporters waved and cheered on the quayside “It is very, very bad. In my street, Gaddafi bombed us,” Ibrahim al-Aradi, who had wounds in his groin, told Reuters. “We have no water, no electricity. We don’t have medicine. There are snipers everywhere.”
Doctors on board say medical care conditions Misrata were inadequate, and that more than 200 people had been killed and hundreds more wounded. One unconfirmed report said 160 may have died this week.
At least one person was killed and several wounded early on Sunday when government forces shelled a building in Misrata, a resident told Reuters.
As the ship arrived in Benghazi several hundred rebel supporters waiting on the quayside chanted: “The blood of martyrs is spilled for freedom.”
The Ankara would pick up about 100 more wounded before setting sail for the Turkish port of Cesme, where the casualties would be treated in a well-equipped, well-supplied, modern hospital, officials said.
To the east of Benghazi, government troops continued to hold ground near the university in Brega, trading rocket and artillery fire with the rebels.
The BBC’s Orla Guerin reports on the stalemate developing near Brega
The rebel Transitional National Council has appealed for new Nato air strikes, as well as weapons and military training to be provided by foreign governments.
They have acknowledged that rebel fighters firing in the air through lack of discipline could have provoked the Nato air strike on a rebel convoy on Friday, which left at least 13 people dead.
The rebel military commanders say they are trying to bring a new professionalism to its military campaign. Road blocks have been set up close to the frontline and only soldiers with at least some training are allowed through.
Iman Bugaighis, a spokeswoman for the rebel council, told the BBC: “We have reorganised our troops. Now the army is in the front and then followed by our volunteers who are fighting with the army.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa meanwhile called for a swift end to the conflict, even if it meant offering Col Gaddafi safe haven in another country.
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Misrata evacuees share their stories with the BBC’s Christian Fraser
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Sarah Payne was kidnapped and murdered by convicted sex offender Roy Whiting A scheme allowing parents to check if someone in contact with their child is a sex offender now extends to all 43 police forces in England and Wales.
The Metropolitan Police is the last force to join the scheme piloted and gradually rolled out since 2008.
Figures for 24 forces obtained by the BBC – covering 2008 to January 2011 – show that of 878 inquiries, 84 identified registered sex offenders.
The scheme’s introduction has not led to vigilante attacks, police say.
Some critics of the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme have expressed fears that paedophiles could be targeted in vigilante attacks.
Known as “Sarah’s Law”, the scheme was proposed after the murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne by a convicted sex offender, Roy Whiting, in West Sussex in 2000.
The figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act also show that, of the 878 enquiries to 24 police forces, in addition to the 84 which identified sex offenders there were 110 cases where further action was taken such as social services being alerted.
“Without it (Sarah’s Law) we would have no way of knowing this man was not to be trusted”
Anonymous father
A father, who wished to remain anonymous, told BBC News that he had sought information from police about a man who toured village fetes and festivals and had befriended his son.
Police revealed the man had a conviction for sexually abusing a boy of a similar age.
“It obviously meant we couldn’t trust this man under any circumstances… and we had to explain to an innocent 14-year-old… what exactly a sex offender was and what he might want,” the father said.
“Without it (Sarah’s Law), we would have no way of knowing this man was not to be trusted.”
The man had offered to take the boy to festivals, and claimed he was a foster carer and teacher.
“It was as if he had thought in advance about the kind of things he would have to say,” the father added.
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France has increased its military presence in Ivory Coast The UN secretary general has urged Ivory Coast’s internationally-backed president to investigate hundreds of deaths blamed partly on his supporters.
Ban Ki-moon said he was “concerned and alarmed” about the reports, from the town of Duekoue, but Alassane Ouattara said his followers were not involved.
The BBC’s Andrew Harding, in Duekoue, says UN workers have found hundreds of bodies.
In the main city of Abidjan, fighting has continued between rival troops.
Mr Ouattara’s forces have beaten back supporters of his rival, incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, to a few key locations.
UN spokesman Hamadoun Toure told the BBC he had heard gunfire near the presidential palace, currently held by Mr Gbagbo, adding that the situation was very tense.
The airport, which had been secured by UN troops since Friday, is now under the control of French troops, allowing it to re-open.
There were reports that the UN was evacuating around 200 employees from Abidjan.
But the city’s pro-Gbagbo TV station called for people to mobilise against what it called a French ‘”occupation”.
Mr Ouattara’s forces are reported to be planning a further advance towards the presidential palace and have imposed a curfew on the city.
I’m walking down the street here in Duekoue and there are bodies all around me. They’re being brought out by Red Cross workers, pulling them out of the bushes, they’re being wrapped in plastic.
I’ve seen 30-40 already, and that’s just a fraction of what they’ve collected over the past few days.
They’re taking the bodies to a mass grave that they’re just digging now nearby.
The situation in the town remains very unstable. It’s held now by Alassane Ouattara’s forces – we’ve been talking to a lot of them. They deny any role in these atrocities.
We understand that at a church where thousands of civilians are taking shelter there has been more friction, more instability. The UN is rushing there now to see if they can prevent more trouble.
The violence in Duekoue happened last week, when Mr Outtara’s fighters moved south ousting Mr Gbagbo’s troops from large swathes of the country. Both sides have said the other was responsible.
The UN said on Saturday that more than 330 people had been killed as Mr Ouattara’s forces took over Duekoue, most of them at the hands of his fighters. However, more than 100 of them were killed by Mr Gbagbo’s troops, it added.
“The secretary general expressed particular concern and alarm about reports that pro-Ouattara forces may have killed many civilians in the town of Duekoue in the west of the country,” UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
“The secretary general said those responsible should be held accountable.”
UN officials are still investigating and say the final death toll may be higher. Caritas aid agency estimated that 1,000 may have died.
Mr Ouattara said his supporters were not involved, but told Mr Ban he had ordered an investigation into the killings and would welcome an international inquiry, Mr Nesirky said.
France has sent an extra 300 soldiers to Ivory Coast, defence ministry spokesman Thierry Burkhard said, taking the total French force to about 1,400.
The aim of the reinforcement was “to take control over the airport which was also done in co-ordination with the UN mission, to allow the re-opening of this airport to civilian airlines and military flights”, he told the BBC.
Mr Burkhard added that the force’s mission remained primarily the protection of French nationals, who were being threatened by looters.
“We are currently experiencing in Abidjan a security vacuum because the Ivorian security forces, which until now followed the orders of Mr Gbagbo, answered in great numbers the rallying call made by President Ouattara,” he said.
There were no immediate plans to start evacuating foreigners, he said, though about 1,600 were sheltering in a French army camp.
They include about 700 French nationals, some 600 Lebanese citizens and 60 Europeans of assorted nationalities, French media report.
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Some Nigerians had already cast their votes before Saturday’s poll was cancelled Nigeria has postponed its parliamentary election until next Saturday – the second such delay in two days.
The vote was initially due to take place on Saturday, but staff and papers failed to materialise at polling stations around the country.
After first calling the election off until Monday, officials further delayed it until Saturday.
The election commission’s decision means presidential and state elections have also been pushed back.
The BBC’s Caroline Duffield in Lagos says the country’s political culture of vote-rigging and violence has made it difficult for people to accept the official explanations for the delay.
She says many voters – and some politicians – think political interference caused Saturday’s chaos.
The elections are seen as a vital test of Nigeria’s democratic credentials.
Electoral chief Attahiru Jega was brought in last year to overhaul a system often regarded as flawed.
The electoral chaos has led some to question his suitability for the job.
Announcing the second delay, Mr Jega said the decision had the backing of all political parties.
“Requests to reschedule the national assembly elections have come from a cross section of stakeholders, including political parties and civil society organisations,” he said.
“We are more determined now to ensure that the 2011 elections are free, fair and credible.”
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has won all three elections since the end of military rule in 1999, amid widespread claims of rigging and cheating.
Nigerian elections are also marked by violence – and security had been high in the run-up to Saturday’s aborted poll.
But Amnesty International said at least 20 people had been killed in election-related violence over the last two weeks.
The voting process had already started on Saturday, with large turnouts reported in cities such as Lagos and Kano, before Mr Jega announced the initial postponement.
Some 73 million people have registered for the election, where they will vote for 360 seats in the House of Representatives, and 109 in the Senate. The PDP holds more than three-quarters of the seats in both houses.
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. But having a southerner – President Goodluck Jonathan – as its candidate in the presidential elections may lose it some votes in the north.
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 of the north is in stark contrast to the more developed south. The oil-rich south-eastern states complain that all the income flows up the pipeline to the capital Abuja and to Lagos, Nigeria’s wealthiest state. But residents of Akwa Ibom and Delta states are still typically better-off than those living in the north.
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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The mother of murdered Northern Ireland policeman Ronan Kerr urges people to come forward with information, and says Catholics should still join the police.
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Passengers said they could see the sky when the hole opened up An examination of a US plane that developed a hole in its cabin roof in mid-flight has found evidence of metal fatigue in the fuselage.
The hole caused a sudden drop in cabin pressure, and Flight 812 from Phoenix to Sacramento was forced to make a steep descent and emergency landing.
The jet carrying more than 100 people landed safely in Arizona.
Owners Southwest Airlines cancelled 300 flights on Sunday to allow for inspections of 79 of its aircraft.
One flight attendant was slightly injured during the incident on Friday but no-one was seriously hurt.
There were 118 passengers and crew on board the 15-year-old plane.
Investigators said the rip began where two outer panels were riveted together, and that the area around it showed evidence of pre-existing cracking due to fatigue.
“We did find evidence of widespread cracking across this entire fracture surface,” National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt told reporters.
The plane is one of the oldest in Southwest’s fleet and has made thousands of flights, but the company said it had undergone all required inspections.
Describing the incident, passenger Brenda Reese said the plane had just left Phoenix when she heard a “gunshot-like sound”.
Passengers on board the Southwest Airlines flight described what happened
Witnesses said a couple of people nearly passed out while scrambling for oxygen masks.
Aviation officials said the pilot made a controlled descent, dropping 8,000m (25000ft) from 11,000m in about five minutes.
The same thing happened to another Southwest jet in 2009. Then, metal fatigue was the cause.
The company changed its maintenance programme as a result, but before that incident Southwest Airlines paid millions of dollars to settle charges it was skipping inspections.
In 1988, cracks caused a hole to open in an Aloha Airlines plane over Hawaii. In that incident, a flight attendant died.
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No-one survived the crash Wreckage from an Air France jet lost over the Atlantic nearly two years ago with 228 people on board has been found, French investigators say.
With the cause of the crash still unknown, a fourth attempt to locate the plane’s voice and data recorders got under way last month.
Searchers located wreckage during the past 24 hours, investigators in Paris said, without giving details.
Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris came down in a storm on 1 June 2009.
A French judge recently filed preliminary manslaughter charges against Air France over the crash.
Airbus, the maker of the jet, says no one can know for sure how the crash occurred unless the so-called “black boxes” are found.
The search has been financed jointly by Air France and Airbus. It involves dives to depths of up to 4,000m (13,120ft) with the use of special robots to examine the ocean floor between Brazil and West Africa.
France’s Bureau of Investigations and Analysis (BEAR) said that plane parts of the plane had been located by the searchers, led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
“These parts have been identified by BEA investigators as belonging to the wreck of the A330-203, Flight AF 447”
French Bureau of Investigations and Analysis
“These parts have been identified by BEA investigators as belonging to the wreck of the A330-203, Flight AF 447,” it added.
The bureau promised to release further information later.
An initial search found 50 bodies and hundreds of pieces of the plane, including its torn-off tail, while the last search ended in failure in May 2010.
The latest search was planned as a “systematic exploration” of an area of some 10,000 sq km (3,900 sq miles).
Officials have previously said there can be no guarantee that the flight recorders will ever be found.
Those who died included more than 30 nationalities. Most were French, Brazilian or German.
The crash has been partially blamed on malfunctioning speed sensors but officials believe other factors must also have contributed.
Crash timeline 1 June 2009 This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Novak Djokovic extends his unbeaten start to 2011 with victory over world number one Rafael Nadal in the Sony Ericsson Open final.
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A demonstration in Bangladesh against women’s rights has left one person dead and at least 30 others injured.
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Two explosions hit a Sufi Muslim shrine in Pakistan, with early reports saying at least seven people have been killed and 30 more injured.
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Fulham striker Bobby Zamora helps his side move a step closer to Premier League safety with two goals against fellow relegation battlers Blackpool.
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