'Wealth inequality' hits children

31 October 2012 Last updated at 21:26 ET

Global inequalities in wealth are at their highest level for 20 years and are growing, according to a new report by Save The Children.

While the charity acknowledges progress has been made in goals such as reducing child mortality, the report says this has been uneven across income groups.

Continuing inequality could hinder further progress in improving living standards, the charity says.

The report comes ahead of a meeting of a high-level UN panel on poverty.

"In recent decades the world has made dramatic progress in cutting child deaths and improving opportunities for children; we are now reaching a tipping point where preventable child deaths could be eradicated in our lifetime," Save the Children's chief executive, Justin Forsyth, said.

"Unless inequality is addressed... any future development framework will simply not succeed in maintaining or accelerating progress. What's more, it will hold individual countries - and the world - back from experiencing real growth and prosperity," Mr Forsyth added.

Save The Children's researchers found that in most of the 32 developing countries they looked at, the rich had increased their share of national income since the 1990s.

In a fifth of the countries, the incomes of the poorest had fallen over the same period.

The gap has become particularly pronounced among children and affects their well-being as well as causing disparities in several key indicators, the charity says.

For example, it notes that in Tanzania, child mortality in the richest fifth of the population fell from 135 to 90 per 1,000 births over the research period, while the poorest fifth saw hardly any progress with a modest fall of 140 to 137 per 1,000 births.

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Nigerian army accused of abuses

1 November 2012 Last updated at 01:55 ET

Nigerian security forces have carried out widespread abuses in their campaign against the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, Amnesty International says.

The rights group says in a report that abuses include extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance and torture.

A spokesman from the Nigerian army rejected the accusations, saying soldiers always operate within the law.

Boko Haram campaigns for an Islamic state and has been blamed for the deaths of hundreds of people this year.

It has carried out frequent attacks in northern and central Nigeria since 2009.

In its report, Amnesty blamed Boko Haram for widespread atrocities, including murder, burning down churches and schools, and attacks against the media.

But it said a heavy-handed response by the security forces had only fuelled further violence.

"The cycle of attack and counter-attack has been marked by unlawful violence on both sides, with devastating consequences for the human rights of those trapped in the middle," said the group's secretary general, Salil Shetty.

"People are living in a climate of fear and insecurity, vulnerable to attack from Boko Haram and facing human rights violations at the hands of the very state security forces which should be protecting them."

Reports of people being shot dead by the army or beaten to death in detention were particularly common in the north-east of the country, Amnesty said.

In response, Nigerian army spokesman Col SK Usman told the BBC that soldiers were professional and properly trained.

"There is no Nigerian soldier that goes out on the streets to just kill innocent Nigerians," he said.

"So whatever we do we always make sure it is done within the ambit of the law."

Amnesty's report documents what it calls an "increasing climate of fear" in which people are too scared to report crimes and journalists do not dare to cover them.

It calls on Nigeria's government to clarify the truth about incidents linked to Boko Haram, establish accountability for abuses and bring those responsible to justice.

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China fund buys stake in Heathrow

1 November 2012 Last updated at 04:06 ET

China Investment Corporation (CIC), the country's sovereign wealth fund, has bought a 10% stake in the firm that owns London's Heathrow airport.

Heathrow Airport Holdings' other UK airports include Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

CIC was set up in 2007 to invest some of China's foreign exchange reserves.

Despite concerns in other countries about Chinese access to key assets, the UK has been developing closer business ties with China.

"It is fair to say that the UK has a more open relationship with China than many other major economies," said Stephen Joske, senior manager at Australia Super, a pension fund based in Beijing.

"There is certainly push all around the world for scrutiny of Chinese investment - it has been ringing alarm bells.

"It is unfair to an extent, as these deals are a win-win transaction. Politics has been overshadowing economics."

British opportunities

This is CIC's second major investment in UK infrastructure. In January, it bought 8.68% of the firm behind UK utility group Thames Water.

The latest airports deal will see the fund pay £450m ($726m) for a 10% stake in Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd, which was previously known as BAA Ltd.

Under the terms of the agreement it will buy a 5.7% stake in FGP Topco Ltd from Spanish firm Ferrovial for £257.4m. FGP Topco is the holding company which owns Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd.

CIC will get the remaining 4.3% stake from other shareholders of FGP Topco Ltd at a cost of £192.6m.

The Chinese investment company is not the first foreign firm to buy a stake in the Heathrow holding firm.

In August, Qatar Holdings bought a 20% stake, and this deal is currently awaiting approval from European competition regulators.

China expansion

Foreign firms are increasingly looking at the UK for investment opportunities as the economic slowdown has pushed down the price of assets.

At the same time, problems in the eurozone have made the UK, which is not part of the European single currency, a more attractive and stable destination.

Earlier this year, Chinese telecoms and computer network firm Huawei Technologies said it was going to invest £1.3bn expanding its UK operations.

And while UK Prime Minister David Cameron said the investment showed that the UK was "open for business", similar moves in other countries have raised concerns.

Last month, the US claimed that Huawei and another Chinese firm posed a security risk and warned against doing business with them.

In a separate move, US President Barack Obama blocked a wind farm deal involving Chinese firm Ralls Corp, citing national security issues.

Australia, meanwhile, has previously blocked Huawei's plans to bid for work on its national broadband network.

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Kremlin plays down Putin injury

1 November 2012 Last updated at 05:01 ET

Vladimir Putin's spokesman has admitted that Russia's president is suffering from an injury, but denied media reports that it is affecting his work.

Dmitry Peskov said the president had "pulled a muscle", adding that it was sports-related.

Mr Peskov dismissed claims that the injury had got worse after Mr Putin's flight last month with Siberian cranes.

Mr Putin, 60, has recently postponed a series of foreign trips, and media reports suggested he had a back injury.

And in a recent TV documentary made for his birthday, the Russian leader was seen limping.

'Traffic jam' concern

On Thursday, Mr Peskov told Russia's Kommersant FM radio station that his boss indeed had "an old injury".

"It's a common sports injury - Vladimir Putin pulled a muscle," the spokesman said, without adding any details about where the injury was.

The speculation in Russia's media started last week after Mr Putin had put off a summit with other leaders of counties from the former Soviet Union. He has also postponed trips to Bulgaria and Turkey.

But Mr Peskov said that the dates for those visits "have not been fixed".

Kremlin officials earlier denied that the real reason for the much-curtailed schedule is that the president is suffering from a bad back and may need an operation, the BBC's Daniel Sandford in Moscow reports.

Mr Peskov also said the president had hardly left his country house outside Moscow in the past two weeks because he did not like his convoy causing traffic jams in central Moscow.

Mr Putin - a black belt in judo - has over the years portrayed himself as a macho man.

Russia's state-run TV has shown videos of him tagging whales, swimming in freezing waters, horse-riding barechested and even saving a TV crew from a tiger.

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Spain Halloween crush kills three

1 November 2012 Last updated at 06:25 ET

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Police are investigating the cause of the crush at the Madrid Arena

Three women have died in a stampede at a Halloween party in Madrid, Spanish officials say.

They say that two more people were seriously injured at the gathering at the Madrid Arena.

It was not immediately known what caused the crush, but reports suggest the panic began after a flare was thrown in the crowd.

The indoor arena, which can hold up to 10,000 people, was evacuated after the incident.

The three women were trampled to death at about 04:00 local time on Thursday (03:00 GMT), Spanish police say.

Two of the victims were 18 years old, while the third was 25.

"There was a human crush at the only exit they had because the others were sealed off," a partygoer - who gave her name as Sandra - told Spain's Cadena Ser radio station.

A police investigation is currently under way.

The Halloween music party featured a number of well-known DJs.

The stampede recalled a mass panic at the Love Parade music festival in Germany that killed 21 people in 2010.

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Greek bank list editor on trial

1 November 2012 Last updated at 07:31 ET

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The BBC's Mark Lowen asks Costas Vaxevanis why he published the list

Journalist Costas Vaxevanis has gone on trial in Athens for breach of privacy after publishing the names of 2,000 Greeks with Swiss bank accounts.

French authorities gave the names to their Greek counterparts two years ago, but documents were never investigated.

Mr Vaxevanis told the BBC that politicians should be prosecuted for keeping the names secret.

But Greek officials have said there is no proof that those on the list have broken the law.

Some of those named, said to include many prominent Greeks, are suspected of using the HSBC accounts in Switzerland for tax evasion.

Mr Vaxevanis says the list he published is the same one that was given by the then French finance minister Christine Lagarde to her Greek counterpart two years ago.

Continue reading the main story

Many here feel that press freedom itself is on trial today. There has been huge public support for Costas Vaxevanis since he published this list, and widespread horror that successive governments here seem to have sat on the information for two years without following it up. It's reignited suspicions that tax evasion and corruption run to the very top of Greek society.

Concerns about government interference in the media have grown this week after two presenters on state television were axed from their morning show when they questioned the position of a minister.

One of them, Marilena Katsimi, told me Greece was in a "very dangerous situation" with "an authoritarian government".

"We're in a financial crisis but we're also in a crisis of democracy", she said. And that in the very place where democracy was born.

Greek officials say the list originally came from a former HSBC employee.

The names on the list are said to include politicians, businessmen and others, sparking fury among ordinary Greeks as they are hit by deep austerity measures, says the BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens.

The issue has revived claims that tax evasion remains rife in Greece, and that the authorities still are not serious about tackling it, our correspondent adds.

'Mockery'

Mr Vaxevanis, 46, said he published the list in his magazine Hot Doc "because I'm a journalist and it's our job to tell the truth to the people".

"The three last governments have lied and have made a mockery of the Greek people with this list," he said.

"They were obliged to pass it to parliament or to the justice system. They didn't do it and they should be in prison for it."

Mr Vaxevanis said he thought the government had not acted on the list because it included friends of ministers, businessmen and powerful publishers.

He also accused much of the Greek media of ignoring the story.

"The Greek press is muzzled," he said. "There is a closed system of power in Greece, wielded by the political elite, businessmen and journalists."

"If I need to go to prison I will do," he said. "Not because I'm a hero, but to show the injustice of what is happening in Greece."

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US campaign restarts after Sandy

1 November 2012 Last updated at 07:49 ET

President Barack Obama is to resume an election campaign suspended in the aftermath of storm Sandy, which wreaked havoc in the north-eastern US.

Mr Obama visited storm-hit New Jersey on Wednesday, while Republican rival Mitt Romney has been holding rallies after restarting his own campaign.

Meanwhile New York's first subway trains set off since Monday, when the network closed for the storm.

Sandy left at least 64 dead in the US, causing havoc on the east coast.

It cut power from millions of homes and paralysed transport.

The storm made landfall on Monday night in New Jersey, where some 20,000 people remain trapped in their homes by sewage-contaminated floodwater.

Continue reading the main story

The president might have spent another day above the fray, but he is heading out west, where it seems his team think supporters may need a little personal encouragement to vote"

End Quote

In New York City, the storm brought a record tidal surge that swamped the subway system and caused widespread blackouts.

Earlier, it killed nearly 70 people in the Caribbean and caused extensive crop destruction in impoverished Haiti.

Severe congestion

New York has begun a slow recovery from the storm.

Subway trains started running again at around 05:30 (09:30 GMT) on Thursday, but services were limited and there were no trains in lower Manhattan.

The New York Times reported that some trains were relatively empty.

Many bus services are already back on the roads, and most of the city's bridges have reopened.

But the newspaper said that on Wednesday there was severe congestion in the streets, and buses were extremely slow and crowded. TV footage showed similar scenes on Thursday.

Police are refusing access to Manhattan to vehicles carrying fewer than three people.

New York State governor Andrew Cuomo has announced that all fares on commuter trains, subways and buses will be waived on Thursday and Friday, in the hope of relieving traffic jams.

As the city struggled to return to normal, people were seen gathering round power strips in the street to recharge their mobile phones and filling up buckets of water at fire hydrants.

The New York Stock Exchange reopened on generator power after two days of closure, along with the Nasdaq exchange.

But New York City's Bellevue Hospital had to order the evacuation of some 500 patients after back-up electricity failed.

The Holland Tunnel, connecting New Jersey and New York City, remains flooded.

Flights have now resumed at JFK and Newark Liberty airports. The city's LaGuardia airport is also expected to reopen on Thursday. Nearly 20,000 flights were grounded by Sandy.

'Long haul'

Mr Obama has planned campaign stops on Thursday in Nevada, Colorado and Wisconsin.

On Wednesday, he toured parts of New Jersey struck by the storm with Republican Governor Chris Christie.

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President Obama pledged help for those affected by Sandy as he visited Brigantine, New Jersey

"You guys are in my thoughts and prayers," the president said during a visit to an emergency shelter in Atlantic City. "We are going to be here for the long haul."

Of more than six million homes and businesses across the north-east that still have no electricity, a third of them are in New Jersey.

In the New Jersey city of Hoboken, across the Hudson River from New York City, the National Guard has arrived to evacuate about 20,000 people and distribute meals.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, usually one of Mr Obama's fiercest critics, spoke of his "great working relationship" with the Democratic president.

"I cannot thank the president enough for his personal concern and compassion for the people of our state," said Mr Christie.

Mr Romney held two rallies in Florida on Wednesday, where his campaign said he tried to strike a "positive tone".

Election day is on 6 November, and polls suggest the candidates are running neck and neck.

Eight out of ten voters in a Washington Post/ABC poll gave Mr Obama an "excellent" or "good" rating for his handling of the emergency.

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Shooting rocks US Halloween party

1 November 2012 Last updated at 08:13 ET

At least four people have been wounded in a shooting outside a Halloween party at the University of Southern California (USC), in Los Angeles.

University officials said the shooting happened as result of an argument between two people unconnected with the university.

One of the two was shot, along with three bystanders. Both were detained as they fled the scene.

The incident took place at 23:30 local time (06:30 GMT).

The campus was shut down but later reopened.

'Screaming and running'

After the shooting, witnesses reported a "mob of people" fleeing from the main campus building.

A contributor to campus news outlet Neon Tommy, Matt Hamilton, told the website he was among crowds of people trying to get into the party when he heard at least four shots in quick succession.

He said police came quickly, as there were already patrols on the campus.

"Everyone started running. I saw a guy who was shot in the leg. He was limping and screaming for his friends to help him," an unnamed witness said, quoted by the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

"People were screaming and running away."

USC's Department of Public Safety issued alerts asking students to stay away from the area, stay indoors and avoid opening the door to strangers.

In a statement later, USC student affairs vice president Michael Jackson warned students to be vigilant at social events, reminding them that only USC students and guests with student IDs were allowed at campus parties.

In 2008, USC sprinter Bryshon Nellum was shot in the leg three times at a Halloween party just off the campus.

He recovered and won a silver medal in the 4 x 400m relay at the London 2012 Olympics.

The latest shooting comes just months after 12 people were killed and 58 injured in a July shooting at a Batman film screening in Aurora, Colorado.

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Bananas could be future staple

30 October 2012 Last updated at 20:35 ET By Matt McGrath Science reporter, BBC World Service

Climate change could lead to crops from the banana family becoming a critical food source for millions of people, a new report says.

Researchers from the CGIAR agricultural partnership say the fruit might replace potatoes in some developing countries.

Cassava and the little-known cowpea plant could be much more important food crops as temperatures rise.

People will have to adapt to new and varied menus as traditional crops struggle, say the authors.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

When the farmers see the problems they are having with production, they really are willing to shift"

End Quote Bruce Campbell CCAFS

Responding to a request from the United Nations' committee on world food security, a group of experts in the field looked at the projected effects of climate change on 22 of the world's most important agricultural commodities.

Blooming bananas

They predict that the world's three biggest crops in terms of calories provided - maize, rice and wheat - will decrease in many developing countries.

They suggest that the potato, which grows best in cooler climates, could also suffer as temperatures increase and weather becomes more volatile.

The authors argue that these changes "could provide an opening for cultivating certain varieties of bananas" at higher altitudes, even in those places that currently grow potatoes.

Dr Philip Thornton is one of those behind the report. He told BBC News that while bananas and plantains also have limiting factors, they may be a good substitute for potatoes in certain locations.

"It's not necessarily a silver bullet, but there may be places where as temperatures increase, bananas might be one option that small-holders could start to look at."

The report describes wheat as the world's most important plant-derived protein and calorie source.

But according to this research, wheat will face a difficult future in the developing world, where higher prices for cotton, maize and soybeans have pushed wheat to marginal land, making it more vulnerable to stresses induced by climate change.

One substitute, especially in South Asia, could be cassava - which is known to be tolerant to a range of climate stresses.

But how easy will it be to get people to adjust to new crops and new diets?

Bruce Campbell is programme director of the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security research group (CCAFS) which co-ordinates work among leading institutions around the world. He told BBC News that the types of changes that will happen in the future have already happened in the past.

Protein under pressure

"Two decades ago there was almost no rice consumption in certain areas of Africa, now there is. People have changed because of the pricing: it's easier to get, it's easier to cook. I think those sort of shifts do occur and I think they will in future."

Continue reading the main story

About bananas

• There are hundreds of types of banana plants but not all actually produce fruit
• They grow on plants that are giant herbs and are part of the Musaceae family
• Plantains are starchy like a potato, not sweet like a regular banana
• Organised banana plantations have been traced back to China in 200 AD
• Alexander the Great brought them back from India after his conquest in 327 BC
• Over the centuries they have been called banna, ghana and funana

Source: Dole

One of the big concerns among researchers is how to tackle the need for protein in the diet. Soybeans are one of the most common sources but are very susceptible to temperature changes.

The scientists say that the cowpea, which is known in sub-Saharan Africa as the "poor man's meat" is drought-tolerant and prefers warmer weather and could be a reasonable alternative to soya. The vines of the cowpea can also be used as a feed for livestock.

In some countries, including Nigeria and Niger, farmers have already moved away from cotton production to growing cowpeas.

There are also likely to be developments animal protein sources says the report, including a shift to smaller livestock.

"This is an example of something that's happening already," said Dr Campbell. "There's been quite a shift from cattle keeping to goat keeping in southern Africa in face of droughts - when the farmers see the problems they are having with production, they really are willing to shift.

"Change is really possible. It's not just a crazy notion."

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UN: Burma opium cultivation rises

31 October 2012 Last updated at 03:18 ET

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Gary Lewis, UNODC representative in South East Asia: "There is indeed no quick fix"

Opium growing has increased in Burma for a sixth year running despite eradication efforts, a UN report says.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said land used for opium had risen by 17% this year, from nearly 40,000 hectares (100,000 acres) to 51,000 hectares.

Burma is the second largest opium grower in the world after Afghanistan.

Almost all of the opium it produces is grown in Shan and Kachin states, which have seen longstanding conflict between the military and ethnic rebel groups.

'Toxic combination'

Citing figures from the Burmese government, the report said almost 24,000 hectares of poppy fields had been eradicated in 2012 - about four times the figure in 2011.

Gary Lewis, UNODC representative in South East Asia, said the situation on the ground was "very complex". In areas where opium was grown, there was ''a toxic combination of guns, money and drugs'', he said.

The army and rebel fighters often profit from allowing the trade to continue. Farmers, meanwhile, say the instability means they have little choice but to continue growing the lucrative poppy plant - which is used to make heroin.

Burma accounts for 25% of opium grown in the world, while Laos accounts for 3%, said the report, entitled the South East Asia Opium Survey 2012.

In Laos, land used to grow opium increased almost four-fold between 2007 and 2012 to 6,300 hectares.

The recent rise contrasts with the situation from 1998 to 2006, when both Burma and Laos saw big drops - with an 83% reduction in the case of Burma.

Most of Burma's opium is refined into heroin - about half goes to meet the growing market in China, with the rest being sold across South East Asia.

Part of the reason for the sustained growth in the cultivation of this crop is the demand for heroin in Asia, said the report.

But the good news, in the case of Burma, was that there was now ''momentum to find the solution'', Mr Lewis said.

There is support from President Thein Sein's government, which has embarked on a series of reforms.

Ceasefires and political opening up also meant that international organisations such as the UN now have better access to the areas.

The Golden Triangle - where Burma, Thailand and Laos meet - has been notorious for opium and drug smuggling for decades.

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