Africa leaders in Burkina for talks

5 November 2014 Last updated at 10:14

The presidents of Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal are to visit Burkina Faso to press the military for a speedy handover of power to a civilian ruler.

The African Union (AU) says the army acted unconstitutionally when it took over after President Blaise Compaore was forced to resign on Friday.

The AU on Monday gave the army a two-week deadline. Interim leader Lt Col Isaac Zida later promised to comply.

Mr Compaore quit after mass protests at his bid to extend his 27-year rule.

'Welcome to stay'

Representing the West African regional body Ecowas, Senegalese President Macky Sall, Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria and Ghana's John Mahama are expected to arrive in the capital Ouagadougou later on Wednesday.

A statement from President Jonathan's office said the three-man Ecowas delegation aimed to "facilitate the rapid resolution of the current political crisis in Burkina Faso".

They will hold a series of meetings to press for the quick handover, following a threat by the AU to impose sanctions if the military did not act within two weeks.

The BBC's Emmanuel Igunza in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa says the sanctions could include suspension of Burkina Faso's AU membership and a travel ban on military officials.

After meetings with opposition leaders and activists, Lt Col Zida was on Tuesday quoted as saying that he would comply with the demand.

"If everyone agrees, there is no reason that the transition shouldn't be done within two weeks," he said, according to union leader Joseph Tiendrebeogo, the AFP news agency reports.

Opposition leaders have not entirely ruled out a role for the military in the transition.

Lt Col Zida was previously second in command of the presidential guard.

Amid the protests, Mr Compaore fled to neighbouring Ivory Coast and is currently staying in the capital Yamoussoukro.

France - the former colonial power - has admitted helping in the evacuation of Mr Compaore.

Ivorian leader Alassane Ouattara has said Mr Compaore is welcome to stay as he helped bring peace to Ivory Coast during unrest following elections in 2010.

But correspondents say the former Burkinabe president's presence in Ivory Coast has divided public opinion as some considered that he sided with Mr Ouattara during that crisis.

"As a mediator, he helped his Ivorian brothers resume dialogue… That is why, naturally, we welcome him here, following the painful events that shook our neighbour," President Ouattara said after visiting him in the capital.

"We want the transition to take place in a peaceful and constitutional process. President Compaore will stay in Ivory Coast as long as he wishes."

The streets of Ouagadougou were reported calm on Tuesday.

The AU's Peace and Security Council is expected to meet again later this month to discuss the crisis, he says.

Under Burkina Faso's constitution, the head of the National Assembly should take office if the president resigns.

Mr Compaore first seized power in a coup in 1987, and thereafter won four disputed elections.

The protests were triggered by his plan to amend the constitution so that he could run for office again in elections next year.

19.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Rebels say Ukraine tore up peace deal

5 November 2014 Last updated at 10:58

Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine have accused President Petro Poroshenko of scrapping a deal aimed at halting months of war.

They were responding to Mr Poroshenko's call to cancel partial autonomy granted to two eastern regions as part of a ceasefire agreement.

The Ukrainian president and Western countries say a rebel vote held in the east on Sunday violated the Minsk deal.

He has ordered reinforcements to key cities in case of a rebel offensive.

More than 4,000 people have died in eastern Ukraine since the conflict began in April and the European OSCE monitoring mission has warned that the "blood-letting" is still going on with numerous incidents of shelling.

A civilian was reported killed and several others wounded in mortar attacks on Donetsk on Wednesday. Clashes were also heard around Donetsk airport, AFP news agency said, where government forces have been holding out against rebel attack.

Although Mr Poroshenko insisted he had not given up on the peace plan, he said Ukraine had to "repel possible attacks" and not allow the "spread of this cancerous tumour".

Russia has recognised Sunday's vote which led to separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko, 38, being sworn in as president of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic.

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

President Poroshenko said the 2 November vote jeopardised peace

Igor Plotnitsky, a 50-year-old ex-Soviet army officer, was declared president in neighbouring Luhansk.

But Ukraine and the EU say the vote should have been held on 7 December and run by the central government in Kiev. Germany said Russia's recognition of Sunday's "extremely questionable" poll was "incomprehensible".

In a joint statement on Wednesday, the two self-declared republics said Mr Poroshenko's "unilateral" decision to cancel a law providing their regions with special status "essentially put a line through the Minsk agreement" of 5 September.

There are increasing fears that the lower level of violence since the deal agreed in Belarus may explode once again.

Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday that Russian troops had recently been seen moving closer to the border with Ukraine and Moscow was continuing to train the separatists. There have also been reports of troop movements within rebel-held areas.

However, while the Minsk deal risks unravelling, the first part of an agreement reached last Friday to resume Russian gas supplies to Ukraine has gone through.

Russian state-owned gas giant Gazprom said it had received $1.54bn (£970m; €1.2bn) from Ukraine's Naftogaz, the first instalment of a $3.1bn payment of debt for gas dating back to late last year. Ukraine's gas supplies were turned off in June in a row over unpaid bills and a sharp increase in gas prices.

Russia annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula in March, after protesters in Kiev ousted pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych from power, prompting separatists to take over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east.

Are you in the Ukraine? You can share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. If you are willing to be contacted by a BBC journalist, please leave a contact number.

Have your say

19.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Mexico students protest over missing

5 November 2014 Last updated at 11:07

University students in Mexico are starting a 72-hour nationwide strike in support of 43 trainee teachers who disappeared in the south-western state of Guerrero more than five weeks ago.

The students are also planning a protest march in the capital, Mexico City, on Wednesday.

The 43 disappeared after clashing with police in the town of Iguala.

The fugitive mayor of Iguala was detained on Tuesday for allegedly giving the order to intercept them.

Jose Luis Abarca and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, were detained without a shot being fired in a modest house in a working-class neighbourhood of Mexico City.

A woman who had rented the house to the couple was also arrested on suspicion of aiding a fugitive.

The strike is the latest in a series of protests aimed at putting pressure on the Mexican authorities to step up the search for the missing students from a teacher-training college in the town of Ayotzinapa.

Relatives of the missing welcomed the arrest of Mr Abarca and Ms Pineda on Tuesday.

Prosecutors have accused the mayor of telling the municipal police in Iguala to intercept the students to prevent them from interrupting a speech Ms Pineda was giving on that day in the town.

The students, who were travelling back from Iguala to their college on board busses, were stopped on a highway.

Timeline: Iguala disappearance

26 Sept: Students from a teacher training college in Ayotzinapa travel to Iguala to protest and raise funds

Night of 26 Sept: Police stop the students, 6 people are shot dead, 43 students disappear

30 Sept: Iguala mayor Jose Luis Abarca asks for leave from his post, which is granted

4 Oct: Mass graves are found near Iguala containing 28 bodies

19 Oct: Federal police are deployed to Iguala and replace the municipal force

22 Oct: Mexico's prosecutor general says an arrest warrant has been issued for Mr Abarca, his wife and the town's police chief

23 Oct: Guerrero state governor Angel Aguirre resigns

29 Oct: President Enrique Pena Nieto meets the relatives of the missing students and promises a "renewed search plan"

4 Nov: Mr Abarca and his wife are arrested in Mexico City

Police opened fire killing three of them and three more people in nearby vehicles.

One busload of students tried to flee, only to be chased down by the municipal officers, who took them to the local police station.

Some of the officers, who have since been arrested, told investigators they then handed the students over to a local drugs gang called Guerreros Unidos (United Warriors).

The leader of the gang, who has also been detained, said that he had been told by one of his men that the 43 were members of a rival gang.

He then reportedly ordered that they be "made to disappear".

A search of the surrounding area has uncovered a number of mass graves containing a total of 38 bodies.

Forensic tests carried out on 28 of the bodies suggested they were not those of the students.

However, Mexico's Attorney General has since said that the initial tests may have been flawed. More tests are currently under way.

The relatives of the missing said they hoped the arrest of Mr Abarca and Ms Pineda would yield new clues to the students' whereabouts.

"This was the missing piece. This arrest will help us find our kids," Felipe de la Cruz, told Milenio television.

19.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Pakistan 'blasphemy' deaths arrests

5 November 2014 Last updated at 11:09

Pakistani police have arrested at least 43 suspects in connection with Tuesday's killing of a Christian couple accused of desecrating the Koran.

Reports say the couple were beaten to death by hundreds of locals who then burned their bodies in the brick kiln where they worked in Punjab province.

Police say the suspects are due to appear in court in Lahore. About 200 people protested against the killings.

Allegations of blasphemy are often used to settle personal grievances.

In May gunmen in the city of Multan shot dead a lawyer, Rashid Rehman, who had been defending a university lecturer accused of blasphemy.

And last month a Pakistani court upheld the death penalty for Asia Bibi, a Christian woman convicted of blasphemy in 2010 - a case which sparked a global outcry.

Since the 1990s, scores of Christians have been found guilty of desecrating the Koran or of blasphemy.

While most of them have been sentenced to death by the lower courts, many sentences have been overturned due to lack of evidence.

However, correspondents say even the mere accusation of blasphemy is enough to make someone a target for hardliners.

19.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Driver hits pedestrians in Jerusalem

5 November 2014 Last updated at 11:36

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

"This comes a week after a similar attack killed a baby girl", reports Yolande Knell

A driver has rammed a car into several pedestrians in East Jerusalem, police say, hours after clashes erupted at the city's holiest site.

At least three people were seriously wounded in the "suspected terror attack", a police spokesman says.

The suspect was shot dead by security officials, spokesman Micky Rosenfeld added.

The incident took place near the site of similar attack two weeks ago, which killed a woman and a baby.

The city has seen an escalation of tension, most recently over the shooting of prominent right-wing Jewish activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick, who remains in a critical condition.

The Temple Mount/al-Haram al-Sharif compound was briefly closed earlier to visitors after dozens of Palestinian protesters fought with police.

Rabbi Glick is a well-known campaigner for the right of Jews to pray at the site, which is currently prohibited.

The compound - known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif - is the holiest site in Judaism, and contains the al-Aqsa Mosque - the third holiest site in Islam.

In Wednesday's car attack, police said the vehicle struck more than a dozen people as they were getting off a tram, on the route that runs between East and West Jerusalem.

The driver then got out of his car and started attacking people with an iron rod, they said.

Medical sources say at least one person is in a critical condition.

Israeli media reports say the driver was from Shuafat refugee camp in the east of the city, but this has not been confirmed.

Earlier on Wednesday, dozens of masked protesters had hurled rocks and launched fireworks at police near the non-Muslim visitors' entrance to the site, Israeli police said.

They said they managed to disperse the crowd using stun grenades, and no arrests were made. Several police officers were injured in the incident, they added.

A Palestinian manager at the compound said some 20 people were wounded in the clashes, Reuters reports.

There has been an escalation in tension in the city since the Gaza conflict last summer, with nightly clashes seen in some East Jerusalem districts between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.

Last week, a Palestinian man suspected of attacking Rabbi Glick was shot after opening fire when Israeli police surrounded his home last week.

Hundreds of people turned out for the funeral of 31-year-old Moataz Hejazi.

Crowds of Palestinians also took to the streets to protest against the rare closure of Temple Mount/al-Haram al-Sharif last Thursday.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the decision to close the site was tantamount to a declaration of war.

Jerusalem's holiest site

• Known as the Temple Mount to Jews and al-Haram al-Sharif to Muslims, it comprises the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, and is next to the Western Wall
• The Western Wall, from the time of the second Jewish Biblical temple, is the holiest site where Jews can pray; the Dome of the Rock, where according to Jewish tradition the Ark of the Covenant rested in the first temple, is the holiest site in Judaism
• The al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam; the Dome of the Rock is revered by Muslims because of its connections to the Prophet Muhammad
• Christians also venerate the site because of its Biblical links to Jesus
• A Muslim committee has managed the compound since the time of the Crusades, while Israel, which has occupied East Jerusalem since 1967, controls access
• Israel maintains a ban on prayer by non-Muslims at the compound as a security measure
• Rabbi Yehuda Glick campaigns for allowing Jews to pray at the site

19.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Mayor held in Mexico missing case

4 November 2014 Last updated at 11:40

Police in Mexico say they have arrested the fugitive mayor of the town of Iguala, where 43 students went missing in September.

Jose Luis Abarca was detained by federal police officers in the capital, Mexico City, a police spokesman said.

Mexican officials have accused Mr Abarca of ordering police to confront the students on the day of their disappearance on 26 September.

Eyewitnesses described seeing them being bundled into police cars.

Federal police spokesman Jose Ramon Salinas confirmed the arrest of Mr Abarca and his wife Maria de los Angeles Pined on Twitter.

Mexican officials had issued an arrest warrant for Mr Abarca and Ms Pineda after Iguala police officers said they had received an order from the mayor to intercept the students.

The officers said they had been told to stop the students from interrupting a speech given by Ms Pineda in Iguala on that day.

The students, from a nearby teacher training college, had travelled to Iguala to raise funds and protest.

They have not been seen since. A search has uncovered a series of mass graves in the area, but initial tests suggested they were not those of the students.

Since then, more bodies have been uncovered and officials have cast doubt on the accuracy of the initial tests.

More forensic tests are currently being carried out.

Mr Abarca and Ms Pineda were arrested in a flat in Mexico City, media reports said.

They have been taken for questioning. Officials hope they will be able to shed light on the whereabouts of the students.

19.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Shift work dulls your brain - report

4 November 2014 Last updated at 01:39 By James Gallagher Health editor, BBC News website

Working antisocial hours can prematurely age the brain and dull intellectual ability, scientists warn.

Their study, in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, suggested a decade of shifts aged the brain by more than six years.

There was some recovery after people stopped working antisocial shifts, but it took five years to return to normal.

Experts say the findings could be important in dementia, as many patients have disrupted sleep.

The body's internal clock is designed for us to be active in the day and asleep at night.

The damaging effects on the body of working against the body clock, from breast cancer to obesity, are well known.

Now a team at the University of Swansea and the University of Toulouse has shown an impact on the mind as well.

Three thousand people in France performed tests of memory, speed of thought and wider cognitive ability.

The brain naturally declines as we age, but the researchers said working antisocial shifts accelerated the process.

Those with more than 10 years of shift work under their belts had the same results as someone six and a half years older.

The good news is that when people in the study quit shift work, their brains did recover. Even if it took five years.

'Substantial decline'

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

Dr Philip Tucker explains how shift work impairs cognitive performance

Dr Philip Tucker, part of the research team in Swansea, told the BBC: "It was quite a substantial decline in brain function, it is likely that when people trying to undertake complex cognitive tasks then they might make more mistakes and slip-ups, maybe one in 100 makes a mistake with a very large consequence, but it's hard to say how big a difference it would make in day-to-day life."

He said he would not do night shifts "if I could possibly help it" but they were a "necessary evil" that society could not do without.

"There are ways to mitigate the effects in the way you design work schedules and regular medical check-ups... should include cognitive performance tests to look for danger signs," he added.

Dr Michael Hastings, from the UK Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology, told the BBC: "The reversibility is a really exciting finding because no-one else has shown it and no matter how compromised a person may be there's always hope of recovery."

He said the findings may have important consequences in dementia, which is known to damage sleeping patterns in a similar way to shift work.

"If you can keep the sleep-wake cycle as solid as possible you're unlikely to reverse neurodegeneration, but you can ameliorate one of the consequences.

"In nursing homes one thing you can do to help is to set a very clear daily routine to encourage a sensible 24-hour pattern of activity; it needs bright lights in the day, resting at night and appropriate medication such as melatonin before bed."

Prof Derk-Jan Dijk, from the Surrey Sleep Centre, cautioned that retired shift workers still had lower sleep quality than people who had never done nights.

"So some of these effects may not be so readily or rapidly reversed."

He added: "We now accept that shift work may not be good for your physical health, but this shows your brain function is affected, and I think that finding will surprise many people."

Continue reading the main story

Do you work shifts? What do you think of the findings in this study? You can share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk If you are willing to be contacted by a BBC journalist, please leave a contact number.

Have your say

19.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Spaceship pilots' actions analysed

4 November 2014 Last updated at 09:45 By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

Investigators probing the Virgin SpaceShipTwo accident have established a "human performance" team to help them understand the actions of the pilots.

The new group will look at how the men interacted with the vehicle, and the design and layout of the systems they used to control the craft.

SpaceShipTwo broke apart just seconds after igniting its rocket engine for a test outing above California on Friday.

Pilot Peter Siebold parachuted clear; co-pilot Michael Alsbury was killed.

Their ill-fated flight was to be part of a series of sorties that Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic company hoped would finally lead to a commercial passenger service to sub-orbital space being introduced next year.

US National Transportation Safety Board acting chairman Christopher Hart told reporters in his final on-site briefing in Mojave that investigators were still waiting to interview Mr Siebold, who was seriously injured.

Mr Hart added a few more details to the information he put in the public domain on Sunday, when he revealed the vehicle's descent system was activated prematurely.

This "feathering" technology, which is designed to slow and orientate the craft on its return to Earth, should not have been unlocked so early in the flight, and certainly should not have engaged at the time it did - on an accelerating ascent.

Mr Hart laid out a detailed timeline for SpaceShipTwo's last catastrophic moments.

'Uncommanded' deployment

The vehicle, he said, was dropped from its carrier aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo, at an altitude of almost 50,000ft at 10:07:19 US Pacific time.

The ship's hybrid rocket motor was then ignited just a couple of seconds later, at 10:07:21.

Eight seconds after that (10:07:29), the vehicle was travelling just under the speed of sound (Mach 0.94). Two further seconds into the flight (10:07:31), it was travelling at Mach 1.02.

It is in that period between Mach 0.94 and Mach 1.02 that Michael Alsbury is seen on recovered cockpit video moving a lever to unlock the feathering system - an action that in the pilots' checklist was not called for until the vehicle had reached Mach 1.4.

Investigators have previously described how the feathering system then deployed, apparently "uncommanded" by the pilots. It is probable that aerodynamic forces deployed the mechanism, resulting in the break-up of the ship. This is timed at 10:07:34 - the moment video and telemetry was lost.

Data 'rich'

Mr Hart also revealed that small, lightweight pieces of wreckage have been found up to 30-35 miles (55km) northeast of the crash site in the Mojave desert.

His investigators expect to finish their work at the site in the next few days.

The largest piece of wreckage, a part of the fuselage, will be cut into smaller pieces to be transported away for further analysis.

Mr Hart said the NTSB's full report would take many months to produce.

"It may be helped by the rich data sources that we have; we may be able to move a little more rapidly," he explained.

"But we would anticipate taking as a much as 12 months to complete the analysis that would end up with a probable cause determination, as well as recommendations… in order not to have an incident like this again."

Pressing on

Virgin Galactic issued a statement in which it committed to full and open co-operation with the NTSB over the course of the investigation.

The company also stated its desire to continue with its space venture.

"While this has been a tragic setback, we are moving forward and will do so deliberately and with determination," the statement said.

"We are continuing to build the second SpaceShipTwo (serial number two), which is currently about 65% complete and we will continue to advance our mission over the coming weeks and months.

"With the guidance of the NTSB and the assurance of a safe path forward, we intend to move ahead with our testing program and have not lost sight of our mission to make space accessible for all."

19.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Thailand arrests Pirate Bay founder

4 November 2014 Last updated at 10:57

A co-founder of Swedish file-sharing website Pirate Bay has been arrested while trying to cross into Thailand from Laos, local police say.

Hans Fredrik Lennart Neij, known to hackers as TiAMO, was detained in the north-eastern Thai town of Nong Khai.

He was subject to an international warrant after he was convicted in 2009 of aiding copyright infringement.

Pirate Bay, which offers an expansive list of links to pirated content, is one of the world's most-visited sites.

The 36-year-old Swede was convicted by a Swedish court five years ago.

He and three others were given one-year sentences and ordered to pay $3.6m (£2.4m) in damages.

Neij fled Sweden whilst on bail.

"Mr Neij was detained ... while trying to cross into Thailand from Laos where he had been living since 2012," Thailand regional police chief Chartchai Eimsaeng told reporters.

Neij had been living in Laos since 2012 and travelled nearly 30 times to Thailand, where he has a house on the resort island of Phukat, Maj Gen Eimsaeng added.

Another Pirate Bay co-founder, Gottfrid Warg, was arrested in Cambodia in 2012 and sent back to Sweden to serve his sentence for the same conviction, as well as face a separate hacking trial in Denmark.

Last week, he was sentenced by a Danish court to three-and-a-half years in prison for hacking into computers and illegally downloading files from IT giant CSC.

19.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Gunmen kill five in Saudi Shia area

4 November 2014 Last updated at 11:34

Masked gunmen have killed five people in a key Shia Muslim area of eastern Saudi Arabia.

Nine people were wounded in the attack in Dalwah town, Ahsa district, one of the centres for Shia Muslims in the majority Sunni country.

Six people have been arrested in connection with the shooting, Saudi state media reports.

Shia Muslims are currently marking Ashura, which commemorates the death of a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.

The gunmen reportedly opened fire on the victims with pistols and machine guns as they left a building where ceremonies were taking place.

Shia Muslims make up less than 15% of Saudi Arabia's 20 million population.

They have long complained of marginalisation by the Sunni royal family, with the Eastern Province, where most of the country's Shia live, seeing a spate of protests in the wake of the Arab Spring.

The Saudi government denies allegations of discrimination and blames Iran for stirring up discontent.

19.15 | 0 komentar | Read More