Category: news

The cricket World Cup semi-final captured the imagination across India and Pakistan, but interest was just as keen in the UK.

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

At least 100 of the Ugandan women who went to Iraq in 2009 remain unaccounted for

Prossie was working as a schoolteacher when she heard an attractive advert on Ugandan radio.

A Kampala company called Uganda Veterans Development Ltd was recruiting women to work for high wages in shops in US Army bases in Iraq.

She signed up, along with 146 other Ugandan women.

But when she arrived in Baghdad, she discovered that been bought by an Iraqi agent for $3,500 (£2,200). Her real job was as a housemaid for an Iraqi family.

Like many others, she was forced to work long hours, sometimes from 5am until midnight. She often received little food or water and she was locked inside the house.

“It was a lot of work because Iraqis have this dust, the sand storms, it keeps on falling, so you have to keep on cleaning from morning until you sleep,” Prossie said.

When Prossie protested, her employer told her: “We paid a lot of money for you and we were told that you people don’t get sick and you don’t get tired. So you have to work.”

Sam Tumwesigye and Lt Col Theodore Lockwood rescued 14 Ugandan women

Prossie was raped by the man in the house. Several other trafficked Ugandan women we spoke to were raped too.

“I felt so sad and I had no way out. I really hated everything in the house,” she said. “It was psychological torture.”

On the other side of Baghdad, at an American military base, a Ugandan security contractor called Samuel Tumwesigye heard what was happening to these women.

He called one of them, Agnes, on a mobile phone she had hidden, and promised to help her.

“The first thing I did was go to my bedroom and pray to God,” Mr Tumwesigye said. “I thought: ‘Please, I’m going to start this. Let me succeed.'”

He told Agnes that if she could escape from the house and get to the Flying Man statue close to Baghdad Airport he would rescue her.

Agnes had no passport, very little money and she spoke no Arabic. But she had been told that she was soon to be moved to Syria and she believed this was her only chance of escaping.

Ugandan Labour Exports

Exporting labour earned Uganda $500m a year, at its peak in 2009Most of the workers sent abroad are men, only a small minority are womenA women’s rights organisation, FIDA-U, has filed a court case against Uganda Veterans Development LtdAn earlier attempt to sue the company failed when the lawyer pulled out

She waited until the family took an afternoon nap before going up to the roof of the house and stealing an abaya cloak from the washing line. When she got outside the gate of the house, she started running.

She was able to find a taxi driver who spoke English and was prepared to take her to the statue. Agnes had to negotiate her way through four checkpoints without documents.

She called Mr Tumwesigye en route and he risked his job when he appropriated a vehicle from the base and drove to get her – violating a strict requirement of his contract not to leave the base.

Previously, Mr Tumwesigye had approached a base chief, Lt Col Theodore Lockwood, about the women’s predicament.

Col Lockwood said there was nothing the US Army could do to help the women. However, if they could somehow get to the base, he would allow them on to it.

Just hours after making this promise, he got a call to say that one of the women was in his office. Two days later Prossie and another woman arrived at the base by the same route.

The officer sent an email to his superiors explaining the situation and expecting to be told the women should not be on the camp.

To his surprise, the e-mailed response read: “We will do everything we can to support you, we are going to provide temporary refuge for these women and they will be under the full protection and authority of the US Military.”

The pair rescued a total of 14 Ugandan women before changes to their jobs and the eventual closure of the base closed the escape route for good.

None of those involved in this dramatic sequence of events in 2009 have spoken to the media before.

Several of the women were sick or severely traumatised. One woman who was raped was pregnant and there were fears she would commit suicide. Another was unable to speak or hear as a result of mental trauma and many required treatment for dehydration and exhaustion.

Col Lockwood was able to get them medical attention and even dental treatment at the base.

He spent $5,000 (£3,100) of his own money and another $2,500 collected from colleagues on clothes and other supplies for the women.

Uganda Veterans Development Ltd has strong links with the governing party

The International Organisation for Migration took them back to Uganda.

The company which recruited the women in Kampala, and continues to export labour, is Uganda Veterans Development Ltd.

Its managing director, Colonel Mudola, denied that the women were sold and said that his company has no responsibility for the women after they have been recruited.

“They are not our employees,” he said. “We recruit them and they make a contract with the companies on the other side (in Iraq). We look after them and see that they are being treated well, but really the contract is between the agents and the girls.”

At its peak in 2009, the trade in exporting labour is thought to have been Uganda’s largest source of foreign currency.

Uganda Veterans’ licence from the Ministry of Labour, allowing it to export labour, was revoked by the government after local media revealed the consequences.

However, in December last year it was renewed and the exports resumed.

When questioned, Labour Minister Gabriel Opio said: “We meet them at various political meetings and he (Col Mudola) is a member of the party hierarchy so you need to handle him so that he doesn’t spoil the atmosphere when you’re going for political meetings at the highest level.”

The BBC made contact within the last fortnight with a Ugandan woman sent to Iraq by Uganda Veterans.

She said she was being held against her will, that she was very sick and had been raped and beaten.

Since the BBC interviewed her and Col Mudola, she was put on a plane and returned to Uganda. No explanation was given.

At least 100 of the Ugandan women who went to Iraq in 2009 remain unaccounted for, and Uganda Veterans does not know where they are.

This edition of BBC Radio 4’s Crossing Continents will be broadcast on Thursday 31 March at 1100 BST and on Monday 4 April at 2030 BST. You can also listen on the iPlayer or get the podcast.

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

Microsoft says it plans to file a European antitrust complaint against Google, accusing the firm of trying to edge it out of the search market.

The software maker claims that Google used its dominant position to restrict the growth of Microsoft services.

It cites a number of anti-competitive practices, including Google limiting the ability of Microsoft Bing to index web content.

Google said it was not surprised by the move and would happily explain itself.

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

Derbyshire is nominated for best news show, speech broadcaster and best speech programme

Radio 5 live’s Victoria Derbyshire has been nominated for three prizes at this year’s Sony Radio Academy Awards.

The host is up for best news show, speech broadcaster and best speech programme.

Comic Frank Skinner is also nominated in three categories for his show on Absolute Radio, including best speech personality.

Radio 3, Radio 4 and TalkSport will fight it out for national station of the year prize.

Radio 2’s Chris Evans, Absolute Radio’s Christian O’Connell, TalkSport’s Alan Brazil, LBC’s Nick Ferrari and 5 Live’s breakfast duo Nicky Campbell and Shelagh Fogarty are in the running for best breakfast show.

Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood and Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker will compete for the music personality of the year honour, along with Radio 1 DJs Chris Moyles and Scott Mills, who won the award last year.

Wood, 63, who hosts a show on Absolute Radio, is also shortlisted for the Rising Star Award.

He joins a number of other presenters up for two awards including Moyles and Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine and Mark Radcliffe.

Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood is shortlisted for a rising star award

Moyles, who recently set a new world record for an on-air marathon with sidekick Comedy Dave Vitty, is also nominated for best entertainment programme.

As well as speech broadcaster of the year, Vine also receives a nod for best interview when he grilled former Prime Minister Gordon Brown just moments after he was caught on tape calling Gillian Duffy a “bigoted woman” during the 2010 election campaign.

Competing against Vine for the honour are 5 live’s Danny Baker for his interview with Sir Elton John, Radio 4’s John Humphrys for Julian Assange, Magic’s Neil Fox (Robbie Williams) and John Wilson (Peter Mandelson), also for Radio 4.

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

A national survey by the RSPB records a rise in the populations of small birds, including long-tailed tits, goldcrests and coal tits.

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

Giselle 3D is described as the world’s first 3D ballet

3D cinema last year was dominated by animation and fantasy blockbusters such as Toy Story 3 and Alice in Wonderland – but now arthouse films are getting in on the act.

Last week the world of ballet took its first delicate and perfectly-poised steps into the world of 3D cinema.

Giselle 3D – which was shot almost a year ago at Russia’s historic Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg – received its big screen premiere in London and will be shown in selected cinemas around the UK in April.

It’s not just ballet which is seeking to entice arthouse audiences to don 3D glasses. Opera entered the fray earlier this year with 3D cinema screenings of Bizet’s Carmen and Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia.

The latter, performed by the English National Opera and directed by Mike Figgis, was broadcast live to 15 cinemas across the UK and Ireland, and on Sky TV, in February.

Earlier this month saw the release of Bizet’s Carmen, starring Christine Rice, filmed in 3D by Julian Napier at the Royal Opera House.

Elsewhere, Werner Herzog, the acclaimed German director, has made a documentary in 3D.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams takes the audience into France’s Chauvet cave to examine cave paintings dating back more than 30,000 years.

‘Unusual choices’

Giselle was filmed at the historic Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg

The premiere screening of Giselle 3D last week was introduced by the Mariinsky Theatre’s energetic artistic director Valeriy Gergiev.

“I don’t think anyone has tremendous experience in how to film 3D in an opera house,” Gergiev told the BBC after the screening.

“It needs a lot of thought, not to be a prisoner of technology – the natural flow of the dance has to be a top priority.”

The 3D ballet stars Natalia Osipova as Giselle and Leonid Sarafanov as Count Albert. It tells the story of a simple village girl who falls in love with a prince disguised as a peasant.

The production was shot in St Petersburg last year by British company Can Communicate.

According the Gergiev, Giselle 3D is just the beginning. “We have a list of productions that we want to film in 3D and there will be unusual choices, not only classical or traditional.”

But he said there was more work to be done with the format.

“I have to be honest with you – some of it looks even better than it does in the theatre, but some of it doesn’t… but it is altogether a positive experience and an important major step.”

Cave dreams

Gergiev may be keen to revisit 3D, but Werner Herzog is not so convinced by the format.

Werner Herzog on filming inside the Chauvet Cave

“I’m still sceptical,” he told the BBC. “Of course it’s fine to do Avatar, the big fireworks, why not?

“The industry loves 3D because you cannot pirate it and some of the audiences want the big effects, but there is nothing beyond the firework…”

He said it was “imperative” to shoot Cave of Forgotten Dreams in 3D for the sake of the art.

“The formations of the rock, the bulges, the niches, were actually used by the artists as part of the drama of these paintings – because of that I thought there was an additional beauty.”

Would he use 3D again? “If I look back over the 60 or so films I have made so far – let’s say I started all over again – there is not a single one would I would do in 3D.”

After Herzog’s documentary comes another in 3D: Wim Wenders’ Pina, about the late German choreographer Pina Bausch.

Also in April comes more 3D ballet in the form of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall.

Nine stereoscopic cameras will capture the movements of a dancer which will be projected onto a giant silver screen positioned above the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

So will 3D help bring in new audiences to opera and ballet? One of its selling points is that it opens the door to expensive artforms for the price of a cinema ticket.

Valeriy Gergiev: “Some will come because they are fans of 3D, some will come because they love ballet and they will be curious about what difference 3D makes.”

Joe Dives of Can Communicate said the goal of Giselle 3D was to give audiences a sense of being in the auditorium.

“This will give people the opportunity to see this beautiful and timeless content in areas of the world where they would never have the opportunity to see it.”

Giselle in 3D will be shown on 3 and 5 April at selected UK cinemas. Cave of Forgotten Dreams is out now. Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring 3D is at Symphony Hall, Birmingham on 21 April. Pina is released on 22 April.

Werner Herzog was interviewed by BBC arts correspondent Rebecca Jones

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

Nearly one out of every 39 cars at MoT have had their mileage altered or “clocked” to show a lower figure.

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

China says military competition in the Asia-Pacific region remains fierce

China says the United States is increasing its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region, which is becoming more “volatile”.

It also says there has been a rise in operations directed against China.

The views were made in China’s National Defence white paper, issued by the government.

The paper outlines the country’s current views on security issues and gives an overview of its military forces.

In the document, released on Thursday, China gives a downbeat assessment of the regional security situation.

“Profound changes are taking shape in the Asia-Pacific strategic landscape. Relevant major powers are increasing their strategic investment,” it says.

“International military competition remains fierce.”

The document singles out the United States. According to China, it is reinforcing military alliances and getting more involved in regional affairs.

Beijing also says foreigners are now more suspicious of China – and have increased “interference and countering moves” against it.

Relations between China and the United States, particularly on military matters, have been strained over recent years.

That tension eased slightly following Chinese President Hu Jintao’s state visit to the United States earlier this year.

But the potential for disagreement remains high.

“We admit that our military ties continue to face difficulties and challenges,” said Colonel Geng Yansheng, spokesman for the Ministry of Defence, at a press conference to launch the white paper.

No issue threatens the relationship more that US support for Taiwan, a self-governing island off China’s eastern coast that Beijing considers its own.

“The United States continues to sell weapons to Taiwan, severely impeding Sino-US relations,” says the white paper.

Col Geng made it clear that the two countries must respect each other’s core interests. For China, that includes Taiwan.

“China is willing to work with the US, based on respect, trust, equality and mutual benefits,” he said.

The United States and some of China’s neighbours occasionally express their concerns about the ultimate aim of Beijing’s military modernisation.

But the white paper reiterates that no one has anything to fear.

It says China’s armed forced, known as the People’s Liberation Army, are there purely to defend the country.

China, it says, has a strategy of “attacking only after being attacked”.

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

As a memorial is unveiled to the commandos of the ‘Cockleshell’ raid in 1942, veteran Norman Colley reflects on the mission

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

Inspectors who visited an open prison one month before rioting broke out had “serious concerns” about the way it was being run, a report has revealed.

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

China is accused of keeping its currency artificially undervalued

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will convene a meeting of some of the biggest names in world finance in Nanjing, China on Thursday.

The gathering will take place under the auspices of the G20 and will aim to smooth out global currency issues.

It is the first time China has hosted a G20 event.

But the country’s leaders have played down its importance and say that one of the most controversial topics, its currency, will not be on the agenda.

Mr Sarkozy is the current G20 president and the only head of state to attend.

But other heavy hitters from the world of international finance will be there, including US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, European Central Bank Governor Jean-Claude Trichet, UK Chancellor George Osborne and the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

China has long been under pressure to allow its currency to strengthen, with many key trading partners claiming it is undervalued, giving the country an unfair advantage in international trade.

“China will be sensitive to discussing the yuan, especially on its own ground, but given what’s happened in the world economy in the past few weeks, I think exchange rate complaints will be on the back burner,” said Mitul Kotecha, global currency strategist at Credit Agricole.

The earthquake in Japan, the widening debt crisis in Europe and rising oil prices amid military action in Libya have all buffeted the global economy and are likely to be discussed during bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the event.

President Sarkozy will visit Japan after his China trip, becoming the first head of state to visit the country after the massive earthquake and tsunami earlier this month.

The seminar’s formal agenda is ambitious.

The first session is on the current state of the international monetary system and its shortcomings.

Volatile capital flows or “hot money” and global imbalances will also be addressed.

Another topic will be the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and whether they could be used as a reserve currency.

China has suggested in the past that the SDR, which was created in 1969 as a unit of account and is based on basket of currencies, could be used more widely.

France had seen China as an ally in its quest to reform the international monetary system, which overwhelmingly relies on the dollar as the primary reserve currency.

But while China would like to see the dollar’s dominance reduced, it has gone cold on many of the more ambitious proposals to create a new world currency order.

It is instead forging ahead with its own plans to make the still tightly controlled yuan a more international currency, including allowing it to be used to settle cross-border trade transactions.

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

By Bridget Kendall

Bridget Kendall reports from Gorbachev’s concert at the Royal Albert Hall

Three global entrepreneurs have been awarded the inaugural Gorbachev awards for “people who have changed the world” at a star-studded event in London.

The inventor of the worldwide web, Sir Tim Berners Lee; the media mogul and founder of CNN television, Ted Turner; and a 25-year-old Kenyan engineer called Evans Wadongo were all honoured at a gala to celebrate the former Soviet leader’s 80th birthday at the Royal Albert Hall.

The London Symphony Orchestra struck up a rousing classical medley under the baton of the famous Russian conductor, Valery Gergiev, filling the hall with music.

Framed by mock neoclassical columns and an arch overhead inscribed with the phrase “The Man who Changed the World”, a giant screen showed highlights from Mikhail Gorbachev’s career, interspersed with images of other global heroes and celebrities ranging from Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa to Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher. It was all a bit cheesy and over the top.

But then finally the screen filled with the live image of Mr Gorbachev as he is today, sitting in the front row with his daughter, more portly than in his heyday, with the telltale wine-red birthmark on his forehead but still with the same charming smile and lively manner than so struck Western politicians when he first emerged as Soviet leader.

Slowly the former president clambered up on stage to make an opening speech. He pondered that he had lived through much in his eight decades, seen many things, experienced loss as well as joy and addressed many crowds, but he had rarely been at an event like this one.

Kevin Spacey and Sharon Stone were hosts for the event

Around the cavernous hall in all the red velvet-upholstered boxes, VIP couples, many in black tie and slinky ball gowns, set down their champagne glasses to rise to their feet and applaud him.

A sincere moment of real respect, whatever the gaudy trimmings.

So who had come to pay homage? The glitterati crowd included both glamorous Russians as well as Londoners, plus many other stars and political heavyweights.

The ex-Terminator and former governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was there. So was the former British Foreign Secretary Lord David Owen. The one-time Solidarity leader and Polish President Lech Walesa was among the guests, as was Israeli President Shimon Peres.

And alongside the politicians, Mel C of the Spice Girls had been invited. Goldie Hawn arrived – tripping down the red carpet in characteristically ditzy fashion – and the punk-haired German rock band The Scorpions had come too to sing the song Wind of Change, which once summed up the mood as the communist bloc fell apart. The four of them posed for the cameras in a well-rehearsed group action shot, as though poised to leap on stage and grapple a microphone to the ground.

You cannot deny it: this was an incongruous mix of people and a weird, though memorable, event. The co-hosts on stage were both Hollywood megastars, Sharon Stone and Kevin Spacey. They had learnt their political show lines diligently. She was the straight guy. His job was to crack the jokes.

The event was billed as the Gorby 80 Gala

Sharon: “Where would Russia be if not reaping the benefits of its new democracy?”

Kevin: ” Well, we wouldn’t be in this room tonight and Chelsea football team wouldn’t be able to afford its new players.”

A polite titter rippled through the hall. Oscar night razor-sharp wit it was not.

But to give him his due, Kevin Spacey also had a serious point to make, which he delivered eloquently when he stopped to talk to us on the way in.

“If you look at our world now,” he told us, “all of the things that are happening in Egypt, Belarus, Iran and Libya, people are fighting for the very kind of freedoms and access and ability to cross borders that Mikhail Gorbachev did so many years ago… I suspect that you could draw a direct line to Mikhail Gorbachev and say that’s where a lot of this began.”

A sentiment that probably quite a lot of different people in Britain would agree with.

In Moscow you might find it harder to come across Gorbachev fans who would make the same connection. Many Russians still blame him for the Soviet collapse. For them he is not a hero. No wonder his main birthday bash was being held in London.

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

The Ministry of Defence continues to miss targets for the delivery of key equipment to UK troops in Afghanistan, the public spending watchdog says.

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

The attack on the AMIA Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires in 1994 killed 85 people

Israel says that Argentina has pledged to continue investigations the bombings of two Jewish targets in Buenos Aires in the 1990s.

Foreign Minister Hector Timerman expressed “deep commitment to the investigation”, said Israeli official Natan Sharansky after talks.

Argentina, Israel and the US have blamed Iran for the attacks.

A press report alleged Argentina had offered to halt investigations, if trade ties improved with Iran.

Iran has denied involvement in the bombings, which killed 114 people.

A car bomb exploded outside a Jewish community centre known as the AMIA on 18 July 1994, killing 85 people.

Twenty-nine people were killed two years earlier when a bomb destroyed the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires.

The report about a putative deal between Buenos Aires and Tehran appeared last weekend in the Argentine media. The newspaper Perfil quoted a leaked Iranian diplomatic cable that detailed the offer.

The cable reportedly said: “Argentina is no longer interested in solving those two attacks, but in exchange prefers improving its economic relations with Iran.”

Israeli media reported that the foreign ministry was considering cancelling a planned visit by Mr Timerman to Israel if the reports proved to be reliable.

Mr Sharansky, head of Jewish Agency, which handles relations with other countries, said the visit was still on, after his meeting with the Argentine foreign minister in Buenos Aires.

For its part, the Argentine foreign ministry confirmed the meeting took place, without mentioning the bombing investigations.

It has not so far commented on the alleged offer to Iran.

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

Designing the world’s biggest telescope

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