Category: news

Alleged Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout is in court in Thailand for a hearing that may finally determine if he will be extradited to the US.

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

A man who murdered his wife then took his own life after a row over their marriage had been subject to a restraining order.

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

The Taliban have infiltrated the Afghan army and police, a recently-retired United Nations official warns.

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

The 2010 Ryder Cup begins a fourth day for the first time in its history after rain caused more play delays on Sunday.

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

Brazil’s presidential election will go to a second round after Dilma Rousseff failed to win an outright victory in Sunday’s voting.

With 98% of votes counted, President Lula’s former cabinet chief has 47% with Jose Serra trailing on 33%.

The two will contest a run-off vote in four weeks’ time.

A strong showing by the Green Party candidate, Marina Silva, who polled 19%, may have cost Ms Rousseff a first-round win.

“We can confirm there will be a second round in the presidential elections,” Ricardo Lewandowski, the president of the High Electoral Tribunal, told reporters in Brasilia late on Sunday.

Workers Party candidate Dilma Rousseff is the favoured successor to President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva, who has completed two terms, and cannot run for a third.

Analysts say Ms Rousseff ran a careful campaign, benefiting from Mr Lula’s widespread popularity and the country’s booming economy.

She was a frontrunner for much of the campaign.

Centre-left candidate Jose Serra, the Social Democratic former governor of Sao Paulo state, had seen a boost in his support after corruption allegations surfaced involving a former aide of Ms Rousseff.

Brazil, one of the world’s most populous democracies, was also choosing local and national representatives.

Maria Silveira, a Rousseff voter in Mr Lula’s constituency, Sao Bernardo do Campo, outside Sao Paulo, told the Associated Press news agency: “It only makes sense to vote for the candidate who I know will continue what he started.”

But AP quoted 22-year-old student Iracy Silva as saying: “I voted for Serra because he has much more experience than the other candidates.”

Voting is compulsory in Brazil, with results coming quickly, thanks to Brazil’s electronic voting system.

Ms Rousseff, 62, served as Mr Lula’s chief of staff from 2005 until this year, and is a career civil servant. Her tilt at the presidency is her first attempt at elected office.

During the 1960s and 1970s she was involved in the armed struggle against Brazil’s military rulers, and was jailed for three years.

The 68-year-old Mr Serra is hugely experienced, having served as Sao Paulo mayor, Sao Paulo state governor and health minister under President Fernando Henrique Cardoso Mr Lula’s predecessor. He lost the presidential election in a run-off to Mr Lula in 2002.

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

The Japanese island of Okinawa is the reluctant host of dozens of US military bases – and a row over moving an airfield has sparked an angry stand-off.

Shuri Castle stands on a hill above the Okinawan capital, Naha.

It used to be the seat of the Ryukyu kings, who ruled over an archipelago south of Japan and north of Taiwan.

It is an elegant red pavilion where the kings received emissaries and conducted trade across Asia.

Now the castle is a tourist attraction in Japan’s southern-most prefecture. It looks down on densely-packed apartment blocks and offices.

Heading north from the castle, the roads are gridlocked. For 20km, almost without a break, US bases stand on one or other side of the road.

High fences with “Keep out” signs make it clear that these areas are off limits to Okinawans.

Opposite them bars and shops sell used cars and Mexican food. Cargo planes and fighter jets fly overhead.

The bases occupy almost a fifth of the island. They constitute 74% of all US bases in Japan, on less than 1% of its landmass.

Okinawans have been saying for decades that this is not fair. And in April 90,000 residents gathered to protest, in the biggest show of opposition for 15 years.

“Okinawans understand there are national security needs, but they do not understand why Okinawa has to have such a large proportion of the US bases,” says Naoya Iju of the prefectural government’s Military Base Affairs Division.

“Many people think: ‘We are all Japanese so why do just Okinawans have to bear this burden?”

Okinawa was forcibly incorporated into Japan in the late 19th Century. Sho Tai, the last Ryukyu king and master of Shuri Castle, died in Tokyo in 1901. A process of Japanisation began.

After the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II, Tokyo ceded Okinawa to temporary US control.

The US seized land for bases which now serve as the foundation for the US-Japan security alliance. Simply put, the US will protect Japan if Japan hosts and pays for its troops.

Today 26,500 US military personnel are in Okinawa, on more than 30 different bases.

These include the huge air base at Kadena and a massive jungle training area in the north. Plus, of course, Futenma, the Marine Corps airbase right in the middle of Ginowan city, where houses and schools nestle right up against the fence.

Both the Japanese and US governments say they are vital for maintaining security in an unstable and increasingly competitive region.

Supporters say there are benefits. Okinawa is Japan’s poorest prefecture and base-related income provides about 5% of its income.

More than 9,000 residents are employed by the bases. Generous rents are paid to families whose land is used, as are subsidies to local authorities hosting bases.

But opponents point to aircraft noise and traffic disruption – they have to drive around the bases. They complain about high levels of base-related crime. They say Okinawans – who have the highest birth-rate in Japan – desperately need the land back to live on.

They also argue that the bases are eroding Okinawa’s cultural identity and the subsidies creating a dependency culture. They say that if the base land were returned, it could be made more economically productive.

Protest over the issue has gone in waves. One came in 1972, when Okinawans found that reversion from US to Japan rule did not result in base closures.

Another came in 1995 after the gang-rape of a 12-year-old girl by three US troops.

The latest wave was triggered by Yukio Hatoyama, elected prime minister in June 2009, who suggested Futenma airbase could be moved off Okinawa altogether, instead of to the north of the island as previously agreed.

“Until then no politician had suggested moving the base out of Okinawa,” said Susumu Inamine, the mayor of Nago, the northern city proposed as the relocation site. “The fact that the DPJ [Democratic Party of Japan] said it could gave people hope.”

Amid this wave of hope, Okinawans elected four anti-base MPs to the national parliament. That same wave, in January, helped Mr Inamine fight the Nago mayoral election on an anti-base platform and win.

The huge April rally was held. The Okinawan prefectural assembly unanimously backed a letter demanding the removal of the base off the island. Seventeen thousand people formed a human chain around Futenma.

But – after intense US pressure – Mr Hatoyama back-tracked. In May he said he had been unable to find an alternative site for the base. His “heart-breaking conclusion” therefore, was that the relocation should go ahead as planned. Then he stepped down.

Okinawans were furious. Local media described it as a betrayal. Why, people asked, was it more acceptable to put bases in Okinawa than anywhere else in the country?

Since then, the anger has not gone away. Cars and buses sport signs calling for a “peaceful” Okinawa. So do some buildings. Local media remain militant.

Professor Tetsumi Takara, Dean of the Graduate School of Law at Ryukyu University, says the issue is much bigger than just the relocation plan.

Okinawans feel that their voices have been ignored by the Japanese government for decades, he says.

Since becoming part of Japan they have had no control over their fate – during World War II, when Okinawa was the site of Japan’s only land battle, in the 1960s when US nuclear weapons were located in Okinawa, in 1972 when US rule ended but the bases stayed.

The rights of Okinawans, he says, have been consistently subordinated to Japanese security concerns. “Okinawans are being discriminated against. That is the fundamental problem,” he says.

He says this point is not adequately understood on the mainland.

“When we protested in April, they thought we were protesting about the US military but that wasn’t it,” he said. “It was more about the questionable treatment we are getting from the Japanese government.”

Naoya Iju, of the prefectural government, says that many people think that Okinawans are being treated as second-class citizens.

Mr Hatoyama’s flip-flop even appears to have engaged young people, who have only ever known Okinawa with the bases.

“My mother worked on a base and I learned English because of the bases,” said one young civil servant. “But now more and more people are starting to think that there is something wrong here.”

The relocation plan that sparked the wave of protest is currently stalled pending the Okinawa governor’s election in November.

It is the governor who can grant or deny permission for the plan to go ahead – and the staunchly anti-base mayor of Ginowan, Yoichi Iha, is challenging an incumbent whose view on the relocation plan remains ambiguous.

An Iha victory could force the Japanese government to choose between over-ruling its own citizens and their democratically-elected representative or jeopardising its key security relationship.

Okinawans, says Prof Takara, do not protest on the streets every day. But they watch and they wait and many, he says, are looking to the election as a chance to make their feelings felt.

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

Pope Benedict has urged young people to stand strong against the Mafia, in the first trip of his papacy to Sicily.

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

Partial election results indicate that Bosnia’s tripartite presidency could remain divided over the country’s future.

With half of the votes counted, the Croat and Muslim seats of the presidency look to go to supporters of a unified Bosnia, the electoral commission said.

The leading Serb candidate has been advocating separation from the country.

The complex constitution means voters chose five presidents and 700 MPs.

With 73.8% of votes counted, Bakir Izetbegovic was leading the race for the presidency’s Muslim seat, the electoral commission said.

Mr Izetbegovic, who is the son of Bosnia’s wartime leader Alija Izetbegovic, is considered to be more moderate than the present Muslim member of the presidency, Haris Silajdzic.

He has called for compromise with the other communities to overcome the deep ethnic divisions that still paralyse the country 15 years after the Bosnian war.

The candidate leading the race for the Croat seat, incumbent Zeljko Komsic, is also a strong supporter of a unified, multi-ethnic Bosnia.

Serb incumbent Nebojsa Radmanovic in contrast backs the idea of Bosnian Serb secession from the country.

If final results bear out the early returns from polling stations, the presidency might again be split over the unity of the country rather than end the political stalemate that is blocking economic reforms and clouding Bosnia’s chances for EU membership.

Some three million people were eligible to elect leaders of the central government and two semi-autonomous regions, the Serb Republic (Republika Srpska) and the Muslim-Croat Federation.

They were also deciding who will take the seats in the central parliament and in the two regional assemblies.

The two separate entities were set up by the 1995 Dayton peace accord, which ended the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

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 six people have been killed in an attack on a fuel depot supplying Nato troops in Afghanistan. Twenty-seven tankers were set on fire by suspected militants in the attack close to the capital Islamabad.

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

Millions of Londoners face disruption as Tube staff prepare to start a 24-hour strike in protest at plans to reduce ticket office staffing.

The strike – the second in recent months – begins at 1830 BST.

The RMT and TSSA unions are angry at plans to cut 800 jobs, which they say will affect safety.

Transport for London (TfL), which has pleaded with the unions to call off the “pointless” strike, says change to the network is unavoidable.

The organisation is putting on 100 extra buses and increasing capacity for river journeys to deal with the strike.

The last strike led to travel chaos across the capital.

RMT has instructed all its members to walk out from 1829 BST and has banned them from accepting any overtime.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “We have warned repeatedly that TfL’s cuts plans are playing fast and loose with safety and will turn the Tube into a death trap.

“We remain available for talks but the current cuts to jobs and safety must be halted before we have a tragedy on our hands.

“We have no choice but to take action on behalf of Londoners who depend daily on a safe transport system.”

Mike Brown, managing director of London Underground, said: “In refusing to talk to us for nearly a week, and demanding we withdraw all proposals for staffing changes before talks could progress, the leadership of the RMT and TSSA have seemed intent on disruption.

“But changing London Underground is not a choice, it is essential, and we will not be diverted from moving with the times.

“The leaderships have tried to scaremonger, citing safety issues, but they did not put a single safety-related issue to us during talks, nor have they responded to our request that they set out their specific safety concerns.”

The strike can be followed on a BBC London Twitter feed and a live update web page.

An interactive map will be produced showing areas on the network with severe disruption.

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

The speed and scale of the government’s plans for the NHS in England have been questioned by health unions.

The Royal College of Nursing warns of a “highly ambitious timescale”, while Unison says some key schemes go beyond the coalition’s stated programme.

The unions are responding to plans for a radical reshaping of the NHS which were published earlier this year.

The government says reform is necessary and will give clinical staff a greater say in the NHS.

A timetable for change was set out in a government White Paper and health unions are submitting their responses as the public consultation draws to a close.

Under the proposals, groups of GPs would have to take control of most of the NHS budget by April 2013.

The primary care trusts that manage that money now and the regional tier of the NHS in England would be abolished at the same time.

All hospitals would have to become foundation trusts, which are more independent, by 2014.

Experts have described the changes as the biggest reorganisation of the NHS since its creation.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) says nurses support the underlying principles.

General secretary Dr Peter Carter said the RCN welcomed the principles behind the changes of greater freedom for NHS staff to make decisions, and a focus on the quality of healthcare.

But he raised concerns about the impact of the changes at a time of financial austerity in the health service.

Dr Carter said: “They show a radical shift in the way healthcare is managed and provided, at a time when the NHS faces some of the biggest financial challenges of its history.”

The union describes the proposals as “untested” and says if they are pushed through without the support of staff and the risks being assessed, there might be a negative impact on care for patients.

It wants to see a more gradual approach, with pilots of the new system being evaluated to see how well they work.

In its response Unison, which represents many lower paid NHS staff, also argues that there is a lack of any plans to pilot the new way of managing services.

Unison says so much change in such a short time frame will produce a period of instability which could have an impact on patients.

The union points out that the abolition of primary care trusts was not in the election manifestos of either the Conservatives or Lib Dems, nor in the coalition’s programme for government.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, who will address the Conservative Party conference on Tuesday, has rejected the criticisms, arguing reform of the NHS is a necessity. He says the plans will deliver much more power to clinical staff.

“We need a healthcare system where the management of the care of patients is combined with an understanding of how resources are used,” he said.

“Healthcare professionals are best placed to do this and know where resource is needed to improve outcomes for patients.”

Mr Lansley pointed out that in some parts of the country GPs were keen to make a transition to taking on their new responsibilities, but accepted that others still had questions about how the new system would work.

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

The Mayor of London and the CBI have called for changes to the law governing strikes to make it harder for workers to take industrial action.

Boris Johnson wants the government to introduce legislation preventing action unless at least 50% of union members in a workplace take part in a ballot.

Meanwhile, the employers’ body wants a minimum of 40% of union members balloted to be in favour of a strike.

The mayor’s call coincides with a 24-hour strike on London Underground.

As the law stands, industrial action can take place even if only 1% of those polled respond – as long as there is a majority in favour.

The calls come as union leaders are urging mass action against the government’s planned spending cuts.

Mr Johnson insists a law is needed to stop union leaders calling what he describes as capricious strikes on a minority turnout.

The CBI is concerned about what it sees as the re-emergence of unofficial wildcat strikes, sparked by use of social networking sites.

In a new report, Keeping The Wheels Turning: Modernising The Legal Framework of Industrial Relations, the CBI outlined further measures it says would modernise employment relations legislation.

These also include allowing firms to recruit agency staff to cover for striking workers – at present they can hire temporary staff but cannot go through an agency to do this.

CBI deputy director-general John Cridland said: “The CBI believes the law needs updating to reflect the fact that 85% of private sector employees are not members of a union, and that most employers now negotiate directly with staff or their representatives to bring about changes in the workplace.

“While workers have the legal right to withdraw their labour, employers have a responsibility to run their businesses.

“The public increasingly expects it to be business as usual, even during a strike, so firms must be allowed to hire temps directly from an agency to provide emergency cover for striking workers.”

The CBI also called for the notice period for industrial action to increase from seven to 14 days after the ballot takes place to give businesses more time to prepare for strikes.

The TUC condemned Mr Johnson’s idea, and warned it would be a betrayal of the government’s claim to want better relations with the unions.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “The UK has some of the toughest legal restrictions on the right to strike in the advanced world. Already the courts regularly strike down democratic ballots that clearly show majority support for action.”

This year the High Court prevented a strike by BA workers, ruling that the Unite union had failed to make enough effort to inform its members about 11 spoilt ballot papers that resulted from its poll of 12,000 members.

Mr Barber added that the decision to strike was not one taken lightly: “Strikes are always a last resort as union members lose their pay.”

Ministers say there are no immediate plans for new strike laws.

However, they have kept open the option of fresh legislation to curb industrial action if there is a wave of public sector strikes this winter in protest at the cuts.

BBC chief political correspondent Norman Smith says that according to cabinet sources the idea of a 50% threshold is one that has been discussed and is an option.

But there is concern that such a move would be opposed by the Liberal Democrats and risks straining the coalition.

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

The NHS has a “closed shop mentality” which stops it working well with private health providers, according to a think tank’s report.

Civitas says this means some patients miss out on better services.

It said it had evidence that staff from private firms were barred from training courses and snubbed at meetings.

However, a group representing private providers said relations with the NHS had improved significantly and Civitas was over-playing the issue.

The report analyses the success of some of the healthcare reforms introduced under the previous Labour government.

These include the introduction of systems designed to allow NHS hospitals to “compete” for work with each other and with independent providers.

The idea behind this was that competition would produce better value for money for the taxpayer, with patient choice driving up the quality of services.

The Civitas report claims that hospitals put pressure on primary care trusts to maintain the status quo, and used “predatory pricing”; manipulating budgets to make their bids for work seem more attractive.

Interviews with dozens of executives from the NHS and private health companies, it said, revealed how the “culture” of the “NHS family” resisted any move towards the free market.

One private executive complained that despite being able to offer a more efficient, cost-effective service, the local NHS “created a cartel” and refused to allow its consultants to work at the private clinics.

One NHS manager told Civitas: “I do not believe many people have bought into the idea that the NHS is the organisation that procures healthcare for the public and where that healthcare is delivered should not matter.”

James Gubb, who co-wrote the report, said: “The coalition government has put a lot of faith in the power of the market to meet the NHS’s unnerving productivity challenge.

“The problem is the coalition isn’t addressing the real issues as to why the market currently isn’t delivering: the overwhelming power of hospitals and the closed-shop ‘we can do it alone because we’re the NHS’ attitude so prevalent across the organisation.”

However, David Worskett, of the NHS Partners Network, which represents private firms working in the health service, said that Civitas had painted too bleak a picture.

He said the kind of conflict detailed by the report did happen widely in the “early days” of the reforms, and was still present in some areas, but the majority of NHS trusts were now co-operating fully and productively with the private sector.

“Of course, it’s dangerous to generalise across the entire system, but in significant parts, independent sector providers and treatment centres are now welcomed.”

A Department of Health spokesman said: “This report outlines how competition can greatly improve patient care.

“Our proposals include greater choice for patients over their care and treatment with any healthcare provider who can meet NHS quality and prices. Our plans also include an economic regulator to promote competition and ensure it works in the interest of patients and the taxpayer.”

The report comes as the NHS is gearing up for a further bout of controversy on the role of private contractors.

Doctor’s union the British Medical Association is opposed to fresh changes aimed at devolving power and budgets to GPs.

Under the reforms, GPs would be able commission services for patients either from the established NHS or independent providers.

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

Students may have to pay five times the current degree course cost at England’s top universities if the cap is removed on tuition fees, research suggests.

A study for education charity Sutton Trust looked at how fees for overseas students, which are unregulated, have risen at 20 universities.

Some universities charge non-EU students more than £20,000 a year.

The charity also warned that poor students were most likely to be deterred by higher fees.

The Sutton Trust report said: “As the patterns for current overseas student fees demonstrate, charges for degree courses are likely to escalate rapidly if completely unregulated.

“At the highest end of the market, this could mean annual fees perhaps five times the current annual undergraduate payments – assuming that current government subsidies continue.”

It added that universities with the “highest academic reputations” were likely to see the highest fee rises – particularly for courses with the highest financial returns.

And students from poorer backgrounds were most likely to face problems in getting into universities of their choice, the report warned.

Recent surveys have suggested that three-quarters of young people would be put off universities by fees of £10,000.

The Sutton Trust called for a comprehensive set of grants, loans and support for poorer students.

Another suggestion was that those from low income homes should get their first year at university for free.

The report said: “The free first year it is hoped would alleviate some of the risk and uncertainty that deter non-privileged students from applying to certain courses and institutions.”

It also suggested introducing financial incentives for universities to recruit poorer students.

This would involve creating a “bounty fund of tens of millions of pounds a year to reward universities that make special efforts to recruit such students”.

The UCU lecturers’ union said the report backed its own findings that countries with deregulated fees charged more.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: “As we approach the delivery of the university funding review we are hearing more and more dark rumours about what Lord Browne might recommend. However, we are hearing no radical or progressive options.

“If the funding review simply lists ways to squeeze more money out of students and their families then it will have spectacularly failed its remit.

“Lord Browne must look seriously at the idea of taxing big business for the substantial benefits it gains from a plentiful supply of graduates and using that money to expand, rather than reduce, opportunity to study.”

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

Rescuers in Chile are embarking on the final stretch of their operation to free 33 miners trapped deep underground.

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