Legal quagmire

29 July 2011 Last updated at 23:44 GMT Important legal records have been left to rot outdoors in Nowshera The massive flooding of Pakistan in 2010 destroyed more than 1.5 million homes and cost $10bn in direct and indirect losses. But as the BBC's M Ilyas Khan discovers in the town of Nowshera, the floods also had a devastating impact in less obvious ways.

In 1970, two brothers cheated their only sister out of her share of the family's ancestral land near the town of Nowshera in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

It was the sort of thing that happens with a depressing regularity to many women in rural parts of Pakistan.

In 2002, the daughter of the cheated woman - who by that time was dead - successfully filed a court appeal for redistribution of the property.

Continue reading the main story

Their cases are headed nowhere because the documents they have in their possession cannot be authenticated”

End Quote Mohammad Haroon Ex-president, Nowshera bar association That has led to multiple complications for Saeed Iqbal, whose father bought a portion of the land sold by one of the brothers back in 1977.

The law required him to provide paperwork so that his status as buyer of the land could be proved.

Mr Iqbal found himself metaphorically in deep water because to his misfortune the files concerned were among thousands of revenue and judicial records that were destroyed when Nowshera was submerged in last year's floods.

'Lost evidence'

"Legally, this puts Mr Iqbal at a disadvantage," says Mohammad Haroon, a lawyer and former president of the Nowshera district bar association.

"Copies of judicial documents, even if officially certified, are often challenged by litigants, and the only way to authenticate them is to produce the original record, which is lost," he says.

Large parts of Nowshera's court complex are under water

Nowshera was the first, and the hardest-hit, casualty of last year's floods - the worst for 80 years in Pakistan.

The River Kabul, which cuts through the middle of the town, overflowed its banks on both sides on the evening of 29 July 2010, inundating the entire town.

Nearly a dozen people were killed, and hundreds of homes wiped out completely.

The entire population of the town - some 100,000 people - had to relocate to relief camps or move in with friends and relatives in nearby villages.

The district administration, the police and the local judiciary took between four to six months to get back into their stride, and hiccups still persist.

The rains this year are not as relentless, but there is a constant trickle as we step into the offices of the district land administration, called Tehsil.

We are looking for Mr Iqbal's "lost evidence".

Locals are desperate to stop "land grabbers" stealing their inheritance

What we find is heaps of muddied bundles of decomposed paper and cloth piled high in two dingy rooms, both full of cobwebs and, warns one official, scorpions and snakes.

Some bundles are scattered in the lawns and corridors of the premises, all dried into cakes of paper pulp mixed with mud.

These were once files of land sketches and genealogical trees of the landowners of about 160 villages of Nowshera district, the oldest of them dating from 1870.

They included original documents of all land development, inheritance as well as records of court judgements in land disputes.

'Futile battle' Continue reading the main story

There is nothing to suggest any damage has been done to the interests of the public”

End Quote Subhan Uddin District revenue officer With the loss of these files, the entire history of the area has become suspect.

Across the river, at the drenched district courts, crowds of litigants hang around in the corridors, waiting to be called in by the bailiffs for their hearings.

Mr Haroon says that literally hundreds of them are waging a futile battle.

"Their cases are headed nowhere because the documents they have in their possession cannot be authenticated," he says.

The district revenue officer, Subhan Uddin, downplays the magnitude of the loss.

"We have been able to save 95% of our records, and there is nothing to suggest that any damage has been done to the interests of the public," he says.

But from what we have seen, that is clearly not the case.

Ahmad Jan, a poor and aging government employee, says God is the only hope he has left.

His father bought some land in the 1940s, and fought a challenge to the sale deed in a court which decided in his favour in 1948.

Ahmad Jan has put his trust in God

Mr Jan is now battling a local "land grabber" who has forcefully occupied a piece of that land.

Although Mr Jan possesses a certified copy of the 1948 court order, the original case file was destroyed in last year's floods.

Now there is no way a court can establish the physical details of his property. This has created an advantage for his opponent, experts say.

They say that as time goes by, countless cases are likely to come to light in which unscrupulous elements will deprive legal title-holders of their land.

And there is no silver lining.

Mr Haroon says the only permanent solution to this problem is a fresh exercise in land settlement.

This would require a land survey of the entire district to draw up sketches of land holdings and genealogical trees of the current owners.

Many doubt there is the administrative will, the funds and the level of competence that such an exercise would require.

The British rulers of India conducted the first land settlement in 1870, and updated the records in the 1890s and again in the 1920s. The idea was to update the records every 20 to 25 years.

But there has not been a single land settlement exercise since 1947, when Pakistan won freedom.

Few expect there will be one in the near future.

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India 'tiger Rolls' is for sale

26 July 2011 Last updated at 15:32 GMT The car was designed more for show than for hunting A 1925 Rolls Royce car customised with mounted guns and searchlights to hunt for tigers is to be sold in the US next month by Bonhams auction house.

The car was used by an Indian maharaja during the days of the British Raj, and is expected to sell for up to $1.6m (?1m).

It was commissioned by Umed Singh II, the maharaja of Kotah, when tiger hunting was hugely popular in India.

Maharajas were known for their high living and extravagant spending.

Many had customised cars - usually made in the US - for hunting tigers, leopards and Asiatic lions in India's forests.

Bonhams say that the car's eight-litre, six-cylinder engine with a low gearing ratio allowed "it to creep powerfully through the roughshod jungles of Rajasthan".

Correspondents say that while most tiger hunting was carried out on elephant-back, some Indian maharajahs, or "great kings" of princely states took things to the extreme.

"It was more for a show but everything would be ready and then they would then go and take this Rolls Royce up to a point or the hills and from there shoot the tiger that was already captured by their servants," Pran Nevile, a writer and expert on India's colonial history, told the Reuters news agency.

Indiscriminate hunting over the centuries has decimated India's tiger population from an estimated 40,000 animals 100 ago to about 1,700 today.

The vehicle is due to be sold in mid-August in Carmel, California.

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India activist rejects graft law

29 July 2011 Last updated at 04:18 GMT Anti-graft activist Anna Hazare had undertaken a fast in April Indian activist Anna Hazare has rejected a proposed new anti-corruption law which has been approved by the government.

Mr Hazare said the Jan Lokpal (Citizen's Ombudsman) Bill was a "cruel joke". He said he would go on hunger strike from 16 August in protest.

The government has refused to include the prime minister and senior judiciary under the purview of the ombudsman.

India has recently been hit by a string of high-profile corruption scandals.

Civil society members, led by Mr Hazare, have been pushing the government for a strong ombudsman that will have the power to investigate corruption charges against the prime minister, senior judges and MPs, among others.

On Thursday, the government approved a draft of the law which allows citizens to to approach the ombudsman with complaints against federal ministers and bureaucrats, who are protected under India's present anti-graft laws.

But campaigners led by Mr Hazare and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have criticised the government's decision to keep the prime minister and senior judges out of the proposed law.

"If a prime minister does something corrupt to save his seat and there is no investigation into the corruption, then what does this mean?" BJP spokesman Ravishankar Prasad said.

Mr Hazare, who went on a hunger strike in April to protest against government inaction on corruption, said the proposed law was "unconstitutional".

But federal Law Minister Salman Khurshid said the government had accepted most of the points raised by the civil society members in framing the proposed law.

Some of the recent corruption scandals to have rocked India include a multi-billion dollar alleged telecoms scam, alleged financial malpractices in connection with the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games and allegations that houses for war widows were diverted to civil servants.

Critics of the government say that recent scandals point to a pervasive culture of corruption in Mr Singh's administration - adding to the difficulties of a politician once seen as India's most honest.

A recent survey said corruption in India cost billions of dollars and threatened to derail growth.

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Living in fear

29 July 2011 Last updated at 09:53 GMT By Aleem Maqbool BBC News, Charsadda Hundreds of thousands are still in temporary shelter a year on from the floods This year's monsoon season has just started in Pakistan. In the village of Sir Darriyya, it is filling people with dread.

Exactly a year ago, residents here spoke of a huge wall of water several feet high that smashed its way through their alleyways and engulfed their homes.

It came without warning as the river nearby burst its banks.

At the time, we travelled here and saw the destruction that had been caused. We met the people who had seen loved ones carried away by the torrents.

'Frightened'

Zarseda Bibi only found her two daughters after days of searching. The bodies of Salma, 18, and Nazia, 15, had been carried more than 3km (2 miles) away.

"I think about those two girls every moment," says Zarseda.

"These last few days I have heard the rain falling and I'm frightened for my children and grandchildren," she says. "We would take them away from this place if we had the money, but we don't."

And so she waits, fully expecting disaster to come again.

Her husband and sons have rebuilt the parts of the house that were destroyed by the floods, and they have made the perimeter wall higher, but Zarseda says she barely cares in any case.

"If I had lost the house and every belonging I had, I could have coped. But there is no meaning to my life without my daughters."

This district, Charsadda, had been one of the first affected, and was an area where the waters had been at their most violent.

Huge bridges nearby were lifted from their foundations, entire villages were all but swept away, and hundreds were killed.

'Living on handouts'

As a massive rescue operation was launched here and across the north-west of the country to save those who had been stranded, the disaster was spreading.

UN's Mengesha Kebede: "A lot has been done but gaps remain"

The immense body of water created by the unprecedented rains had started to surge south, submerging vast swathes of land as it went.

"This was not an earthquake or a one-time event," says the UN's humanitarian co-ordinator in Pakistan, Mangesha Kebede.

"This is a flood which literally went downstream and destroyed livelihoods over an extended period of time. Believe it or not, some areas were still under water in February."

In the end, it is estimated that a fifth of the country was flooded, and around 18 million people affected.

Mr Kebede says that in spite of efforts that have been made to resettle the displaced by local and international organisations, there remains a huge amount of work to be done.

"For the Pakistanis who have been impacted to recover, it will require much, much more in terms of resources than are currently available, and definitely it will require time."

Nearly 20 million people were affected by the 2010 floods

But some are still waiting to see any signs of progress at all.

On the outskirts of Charsadda we find a camp full of those who were forced out of their homes by the floods.

For an entire year, Farman Ali, 46, his wife, his seven children and his 62-year-old mother have been living in a tent at the same spot.

Their house was destroyed, and in the desperation of saving themselves, they lost everything they owned.

Immediately, they became totally reliant on charity, but now that has dried up they feel in an even more degrading situation.

"The last aid we received was six months ago, when we got some basic food rations," says Farman. "Since then we've been relying on handouts from local people."

"My children frequently get sick but no doctors come to the camp any more. We just want to rebuild our house and get back to normal."

'More vulnerable'

He takes us to the site of his old home.

Only one room is still standing, but even that has walls which look to be on the verge of collapse.

In a year of desperately trying to save money to re-build his home, he has only managed to collect enough to lay the foundations for one more room. Everything else has had to go into feeding his family and buying all the new clothes and possessions they have needed to survive.

As we return to the camp where Farman Ali lives, it starts to rain. Water is already collecting on the ground close to the tents. On top of everything, Farman is expecting more flooding.

Whether it is through their grief or their homelessness or loss of livelihood, millions are still struggling to recover from last year's floods.

That, the UN warns, makes them all the more vulnerable as the new rainy season begins.

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Mumbai gunman contests sentence

29 July 2011 Last updated at 16:02 GMT Qasab was found guilty of mass murder The sole surviving gunman from the deadly 2008 attacks in Mumbai (Bombay) has appealed against his death penalty in India's Supreme Court.

Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab filed his appeal through prison authorities, prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told the BBC.

The attack claimed 165 lives. Nine other gunmen were also killed.

Qasab was found guilty of waging war against India, multiple murder and conspiracy. He was sentenced to death in May last year.

In February, the high court in Mumbai rejecting his appeal against the sentence. It is not clear when the Supreme Court would provide Qasab with legal aid and take up the appeal.

The lawyer who defended Qasab during his trial says he understands why his former client is appealing.

"The law gives rights to all to defend themselves. There's no delay. It's a judicial process," Abbas Kazmi told the BBC.

"Anyone would try to cling on to the slightest hope he has. That's what Qasab is doing."

The 60-hour siege which began on 26 November 2008 targeted luxury hotels, Mumbai's main railway station and a Jewish cultural centre.

Qasab and an accomplice carried out the assault on the station, killing 52 people.

The attacks soured ties between India and Pakistan, with India blaming Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the attacks.

After initial denials, Pakistan acknowledged that the assault had been partially planned on its territory and that Qasab was a Pakistani citizen.

But despite charging seven people in connection with the attacks, the Pakistani authorities have yet to convict anyone.

Relations with India have been slowly improving and the two countries have resumed peace talks.

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UK 'cannot free Pakistani detainee'

29 July 2011 Last updated at 16:52 GMT Yunus Rahmatullah has been held for seven years without charge High Court judges have refused to free a man in Afghanistan after the charity Reprieve sought his release under one of England's most ancient laws.

Yunus Rahmatullah was seized by British soldiers in Iraq in 2004 as a suspected insurgent and then secretly taken by US forces to Bagram air base.

His lawyers wanted a writ of habeas corpus, forcing the government to ask Washington to release Mr Rahmatullah.

But the High Court ruled the UK had no control over the prisoner's fate.

Lord Justice Laws and Mr Justice Silber dismissed Reprieve's application and refused to grant a writ of habeas corpus, a right in English law which dates back to the Magna Carta.

Under habeas corpus, an accused person has to be either charged or released if they are detained for too long.

But Lord Justice Laws said Rahmatullah, who is from Pakistan, was "in the hands of the Americans" and British ministers were not in a position to "direct (his) delivery".

Admitted 'jihad'

Mr Rahmatullah's case emerged in 2009 after ministers admitted two detainees, formerly held by British forces in Iraq, had been transferred by the Americans to Afghanistan, a process dubbed extraordinary rendition.

The 28-year-old was seized by British forces in February 2004 during an operation against insurgents in Iraq.

The soldiers handed him over to their US counterparts under a Memorandum of Understanding covering how prisoners would be managed. Within weeks he was at Bagram and was held incommunicado until his family were permitted to speak to him on the telephone last year.

Mr Rahmatullah told US interrogators he was the victim of brainwashing and regretted ever joining the jihad in Iraq.

In June 2010, a detention review board accepted his pleas and authorised his release, saying he posed "no enduring security threat" - but he remains in detention.

Nathalie Lieven QC, for Mr Rahmatullah, told the High Court on Friday his client was being held in breach of international law and added: "It is UK forces which detained this man. It is the UK who have the power to get him back."

But James Eadie QC, for the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence, said Mr Rahmatullah was "in the power, custody and control of the US" and he said it was not right for a British court to "opine" on the legality of an American detention and any such action could affect Britain's relationship with the US.

Following the court's decision, Reprieve said it would appeal against the ruling.

Its legal director Cori Crider said: "The court clearly understood the importance of habeas corpus and was troubled that a cleared man could be held for over seven years, but found against Mr Rahmatullah because the UK continues to hide the ball about its role in his detention and transfer to a black hole, as well as its power to get him out now."

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End in sight for Cairn India deal

26 July 2011 Last updated at 21:30 GMT By Douglas Fraser BBC Scotland Business and Economy Editor The Indian government's condition would reduce profits from Cairn India An end is in sight in the long-running dispute over a major oil deal in which Cairn Energy has faced delay by the Indian government.

The Edinburgh-based oil explorer is taking the issue to shareholders of its Indian offshoot.

Cairn is expected to accept a sharp cut in the value of its oil fields in Rajasthan.

The company has been trying to sell a controlling stake in Cairn India for almost a year.

But the sale to metals company Vedanta has been stalled by the Indian government.

Last month, cabinet ministers in Delhi decided to change the terms under which Cairn Energy was encouraged to explore for oil in the Rajasthani desert.

Having found oil, that change is calculated by Cairn to reduce its value by ?176m ($289m)

Cairn India, the spin-off company which is now 52% owned by Cairn Energy in Scotland, has warned the Indian government that a lack of co-operation in developing the vast Mangala field in Rajasthan is harming the national interest, by forcing higher energy imports.

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), majority owned by the Indian government, has been pushing to reduce its liability to pay all the royalties on oil production, as previously agreed.

The Indian government has ruled those royalties should now be deducted before calculating Cairn India's profits.

While the dispute has continued, the flow from Mangala has been limited to 125,000 barrels per day, when it could be increased to 240,000 barrels.

Cairn India is now to ballot shareholders.

And as Cairn Energy and Vedanta together control 80% of the company, approval of the changed terms is expected.

Rahul Dhir, chief executive of Cairn India, said: "The Rajasthan fields have significant growth potential and an increase in production from this world class asset will enhance the energy security of our nation.

"The optimal development of this resource will only be possible with the active support of our joint venture partner, ONGC and the Government of India".

The quarterly update on Cairn India reflects the Mangala oil field coming on stream, with revenue since the quarter to June 2010 up by 342% to ?506m ($830m), with profit after tax up 869% to ?384 ($610m).

Cairn India is also increasing its drilling activity in Sri Lankan waters.

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Broad hat-trick revives England

By Sam Sheringham
BBC Sport at Trent Bridge

Second Test, Trent Bridge (day two):

England 221 & 24-1 v India 288 - England trail by 43 runs

Broad's place in the team was in doubt heading into this series Stuart Broad took a sensational hat-trick to fire England back into contention in the second Test against India at Trent Bridge.

The tourists were in total control of the match, leading by 46 on 267-4, when Broad dismissed Yuvraj Singh for 62 to break his partnership of 128 with centurion Rahul Dravid.

Then in his next over Broad had Mahendra Dhoni caught in the slips, Harbhajan Singh trapped leg before wicket and Praveen Kumar clean bowled in successive balls to send the crowd at his home ground into delirium.

Broad was the 12th Englishman to take a hat-trick in Test cricket and the first since Ryan Sidebottom in Hamilton in 2008.

Dravid was caught soon afterwards for 116, before Broad removed Ishant Sharma to wrap up the India innings for 288.

That wicket gave Broad Test-best figures of 6-46 and completed an astonishing 16-ball spell of five wickets for no runs.

It was a breathless period of play, and all the more remarkable for the fact that Broad was once again the instigator of England's comeback - the Nottinghamshire all-rounder having struck a rapid 64 to rescue England from 124-8 to 221 all out in their first innings on Friday.

Continue reading the main story Phil Tufnell,
Former England spinner and BBC summariser

Absolutely riveting day's cricket. This series is getting better and better, a great effort by Stuart Broad really dragged England back into the match. It looked like India would bat us out of the game but England will be thinking if they bat well and get a lead of 250-260 they will have a great chance. I can't wait to come back tomorrow

India's collapse left England 11 overs at the end of the day and they finished up 24-1, 43 runs behind, after Alastair Cook was caught off a leading edge.

Up until Broad's dramatic intervention the day had been entirely India's, with Dravid and VVS Laxman scoring 69 in the first hour - 56 of those runs coming in boundaries.

Laxman advanced untroubled to his 54th Test fifty before the return of Tim Bresnan from the Pavilion End brought about his downfall. One away swinger beat the bat, but the following ball caught the outside edge and was snaffled by a jubilant Matt Prior.

Sachin Tendulkar received a standing ovation as he set out once more in search of his 100th international century. But the Little Master's poor run of form continued as he was caught in the slips off Broad for 16 before Suresh Raina glided a catch straight to Eoin Morgan at point.

With the seamers bowling well, England were on top, and they should have reduced India to 144-5 when Yuvraj - on four - was dropped by Kevin Pietersen in the gully.

The error proved costly as Yuvraj and Dravid batted India well beyond England's total, with Dravid reaching three figures for the second successive Test and the 34th time overall.

The duo scored at almost four runs per over but just when they seemed to be taking the game away from England, the second new ball provided the catalyst for Broad to unleash an unforgettable spell.

Continue reading the main story Malcolm Ashton,
Test Match Special scorer Broad is the 12th Englishman to take a Test hat-trick and the 39th in Test historyRyan Sidebottom was the last Englishman to achieve the feat - against New Zealand in Hamilton in 2008Broad was the final victim of the last Test hat-trick - Peter Siddle v England in Brisbane in November 2010England are first side to take a Test hat-trick against India

It started when a ball angled across Yuvraj drew an edge and the catch was taken by Prior.

With the baying crowd roaring him to the crease, Broad produced a quicker ball that Dhoni slashed to second slip and a straight one that trapped Harbhajan on his crease, although replays revealed the ball took an inside edge on his pads.

The hat-trick ball was superb, moving in off the seam and slamming into Kumar's middle stump.

England's reply got off to an inauspicious start when Cook was removed cheaply, but Strauss and Ian Bell survived a testing period at the end.

Bell was forced to bat at number three after Jonathan Trott suffered a shoulder injury in the field, although a scan revealed no bone damage and he will be assessed again on Sunday morning.

Listen to Jonathan Agnew and Geoff Boycott's review of the day's play on the TMS podcast.

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Ford to invest $1bn in India unit

28 July 2011 Last updated at 05:42 GMT Ford has been launching new models in India in a bid to increase its market share US car maker Ford is planning to expand its operations in India as it attempts to capture a greater share of the country's car market.

The US carmaker says it plans to invest $1bn (?612m) in building a new factory in the western state of Gujarat, its second production line in India.

The announcement comes as Ford is looking to increase its global sales by 50% over the next four years.

India is one of the fastest-growing car markets in the world.

"These new state-of-the-art facilities will help us reach the goal of increasing worldwide sales by nearly 50% by mid-decade to about 8 million vehicles per year," said Michael Boneham, president and managing director of Ford India.

'Growth potential' Continue reading the main story

We are aggressively expanding in markets around the world that have the most growth potential”

End Quote Michael Boneham Ford India India's rapid economic expansion has seen demand for higher-value items such as cars increase substantially.

Car sales in the country grew by almost 30% in 2010, making it one of the most attractive markets for manufacturers.

On Wednesday, Toyota, the world's biggest carmaker, said it planned to invest $220m to nearly double its production capacity in India by 2013.

Ford, which has been manufacturing cars in India for more than 10 years, has also been looking to increase its market share.

The launch of new models has led to robust sales growth in the first six months of year. The company said it was looking to exploit the market even further.

"We are aggressively expanding in markets around the world that have the most growth potential," said Mr Boneham.

He added that the company planned to offer more "fuel-efficient, high-quality vehicles from our global portfolio that customers in markets like India want and value".

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Deadly attacks strike Afghan town

28 July 2011 Last updated at 14:08 GMT Insurgents have carried out a gun and bomb attack in the south Afghan town of Tarin Kowt, Uruzgan province, leaving at least 22 dead, officials say.

They said the violence included three suicide bombings followed by fighting in a market, adding that all eight attackers had now been killed.

The dead include Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, a local BBC reporter.

The Taliban say they carried out the attack, which comes amid renewed violence in Afghanistan.

Nato says it is providing air support to Afghan forces in Tarin Kowt.

TV station stormed

Afghan intelligence officials said at least one bomb exploded near the governor's office and one near the offices of a security firm owned by a local militia commander. It is not clear where the third bomb was detonated.

Continue reading the main story

Ahmed Omed Khpulwak was one of those brave reporters who have created that bond of trust with the people”

End Quote Peter Horrocks Director, BBC Global News Most of the fighting took place near these offices, which are close to the main market and a building which houses a local radio and TV station.

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary says the market was attacked from four sides, but the siege was broken by elite forces.

Residents said heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles were used by both sides.

Health officials said 22 people had been killed including three women and 40 injured, most of them civilians.

Among the dead is Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, a reporter for the BBC Pashto radio service as well as the Pajhwok news agency.

He was one of several people killed when the TV and radio station was attacked.

BBC Global News director Peter Horrocks said: "The BBC and the whole world are grateful to journalists like Ahmed Omed who courageously put their lives on the line to report from dangerous places."

Two soldiers were among the dead but no senior government officials have been harmed, officials said.

Continue reading the main story 27 July: Kandahar mayor Ghulam Haidar Hameedi killed in suicide attack at city hall18 July: Aide to President Karzai and former Uruzgan governor Jan Mohammad Khan killed along with lawmaker in an attack on his home in Kabul12 July: The president's brother Ahmad Wali Karzai shot dead in Kandahar home by his head of security'Doomsday' Eyewitness Mohammad Dadu, a butcher at the market, told the BBC: ''I didn't have time to close my shop. I saw two dead bodies and four injured people with blood on their clothes.

"It feels like doomsday. Everyday people came to the market to shop. But today people are here collecting the dead and injured bodies of their relatives. There is blood, smoke from explosives and everyone has fled the area."

Afghan militants have stepped up their attacks as Nato troops begin the handover of security to local forces in parts of the country.

On Wednesday the mayor of the volatile city of Kandahar was killed in a suicide attack.

Two weeks ago, President Hamid Karzai's influential half-brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, was killed in the same city.

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'Shunned' after war

29 July 2011 Last updated at 23:58 GMT By Charles Haviland BBC News, northern Sri Lanka Many former rebels find it difficult to let go of the past Former Tamil Tiger (LTTE) rebels in Sri Lanka say they cannot find jobs or reintegrate into society, a year after they were freed from government "rehabilitation" and detention camps.

In a series of exclusive interviews with the BBC, some also said they were being harassed by the security forces, though others were being left alone.

After the LTTE were defeated in 2009, more than 11,000 former militants or alleged militants were taken to the special camps after being screened off from civilian war refugees. A few thousand remain inside but more than half have been released, in phases, and gone home.

In Jaffna I called on Kumarasamy Muralitharan, nine months after I met him on his release.

He is an ex-LTTE doctor who was trained in the militants' medical colleges and served for 20 years in their medical wing. When I met him in October he wondered nervously whether his qualifications would get him a job as a doctor in post-war Sri Lanka, and whether he would be accepted by society.

Neither has happened. He now owns a small clinic but can't work. Provincial officials have told him they only recognise him as a person released from custody, not as someone medically trained.

He talks to me in his rented accommodation by the clinic, his wife, parents and one of his young children around him and family photos on the walls including one of his brother's graduation.

It is quiet with just the sounds of birdsong and bells from a temple or church.

Northern Sri Lanka remains ravaged

He would love the chance to sit a government medical exam but he has been given no guidance or encouragement to do so.

"There are more than 15 [former LTTE doctors] like me who've completed MBBS [Bachelor of Medicine]-level qualifications here," he says in English. All would happily do government jobs, he says. "I'm ready to face any exam by the government if there is any chance given."

Dr Kumarasamy does not try to conceal his past life - "news spreads very quickly around this community," he says. People don't avoid his clinic or shun him, but he says their attitude to him is "affected by the media and political news". Most seem to fear that if they come too close to him they will suffer some sort of reprisal.

The BBC also met two other ex-Tigers, former fighters who did not wish their identities to be revealed. "Kumar", aged 33, served 15 years with the militants, latterly in a powerful regiment closely connected with the LTTE leader, Prabhakaran, and "Ganesh", aged 23, was forcibly recruited and served five years.

Kumar has no job 13 months after being freed from a tough detention camp.

Harassment?

"I've tried so many places to find a job," he says. "After I was released, the government did give me training in driving, and a certificate. There were 130 driving jobs allotted to us in the transport board, but politicians gave them to other people."

He says people do not view the LTTE negatively but shy away from him because if they meet him, army intelligence will go and question them.

Continue reading the main story

We have given up all the past memories of them [Tiger fighters]”

End Quote Ariyasiri Dissnayake Secretary to the Ministry of Rehabilitation He and Ganesh - also released a year ago - both say the security forces are keeping a close watch on them which they find oppressive.

"We are living under army surveillance," says Kumar. " They give us lots of problems, they call us for registration or meetings with no notice. We have to register if we go anywhere. They even monitor our houses."

Ganesh says that when a crime is committed, the army and police suspect former LTTE members first, and their families fear they will be rearrested.

I put it to him that the government must feel a need to keep a close watch on him and others because of the LTTE's violent record.

Ganesh responds by saying that many of the worst LTTE acts were committed by people who served many years with the organisation including "people who are now on the government's side".

"Most of us were only in the LTTE for a limited time. We only want to look after our families. By monitoring us they make us feel we can't go on living in Sri Lanka," he says. Many ex-detainees have indeed gone abroad, I am told.

In contrast Dr Muralitharan says that - to his surprise - the security forces have left him completely alone and have not visited or phoned him since his release from the camp.

Sri Lanka's military spokesman and the commissioner-general of rehabilitation both declined to give interviews to the BBC. But the secretary to the ministry of rehabilitation, Ariyasiri Dissnayake, did speak to us and denied any knowledge of the security forces picking on ex-rebels.

"The president has given a general pardon to them," he said.

"That means that we have given up all the past memories of them, that now we consider them as our brother citizens. I don't think security forces take discriminatory actions because all security forces which I have seen, they all have good connections with that young crowd. They are good friends."

The commissioner-general recently said meetings are held with community leaders to try to change ordinary people's non-acceptance of the ex-militants.

Officials did tell us, off the record, that rehabilitation is not considered to end as soon as the former LTTE members leave the camps, and that for at least six months after their release they must register at the police station and are not allowed to migrate domestically or abroad. A close eye is kept on them, we were told. There do not seem to be clear regulations on this.

At the same time, the government is publicising one village development scheme in which it says former LTTE members are voluntarily participating. It says the International Labour Organisation and others are funding livelihood programmes for ex-combatants.

Ties to the past

The three I met do not appear to have been given such opportunities.

Nor have they let go of the past. Dr Kumarasamy says that when people tell him, "the past is the past, the war is over", he does not feel happy.

"We sacrificed our lives during that era," he says. "Every family has a martyr. They sacrificed one or two children per family in the Jaffna peninsula."

Former LTTE rebels say they have more than these images to remind them of the war

Surely they sacrificed them to the LTTE?

"It's not like that. That was only in the latter part of the war," he says.

And his view of the future is a nervous one, clouded by uncertainty.

He feels his overall situation is slowly improving, but "I don't know what's beneath the iceberg".

As for Ganesh, it is a year since he finished "rehabilitation" but the dominant emotion is still a feeling of defeat, not of peace or happiness, he says.

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Afghan suicide attack 'kills 11'

31 July 2011 Last updated at 08:40 GMT The attack targeted the gate of the police headquarters in Lashkar Gah

Ten Afghan policemen and a child have been killed in a suicide attack in the southern Afghan city of Lashkar Gah, officials say.

The attacker targeted the gate of the police headquarters in the city, the capital of Helmand province.

The Taliban said it had carried out the attack, which also wounded 12 people.

Responsibility for Lashkar Gah was recently handed to Afghan forces as part of a plan to return all security to local forces by the end of 2014.

High-profile raids

The attack reportedly targeted a joint Afghan police and army patrol at the compound.

Daoud Ahmadi, spokesman for the Helmand provincial governor, said that in addition to those killed nine policemen and three civilians were injured.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi told Agence France-Presse news agency the group had carried out the attack.

Helmand remains a flashpoint of the Taliban insurgency and has cost the lives of more foreign troops than any other province.

Lashkar Gah is one of seven initial areas for which security has been handed to Afghan forces as part of the gradual transition of control from the Nato-led Isaf.

Sunday's attack follows a series of high-profile Taliban raids.

Last week an attack by insurgents in the southern Afghan town of Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan province left at least 22 people dead, including BBC reporter Ahmed Omed Khpulwak.

On 27 July, the mayor of Kandahar, Ghulam Haidar Hameedi, was killed in a suicide attack.

Two weeks earlier, President Hamid Karzai's influential half-brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, was killed in the same city.

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Jayawardene hails walk for cancer

28 July 2011 Last updated at 03:24 GMT By Charles Haviland BBC News, Sri Lanka The walkers were given a rapturous reception at the end of the walk The Sri Lankan cricket star Mahela Jayawardene has paid tribute to his compatriots' generosity in donating funds for a cancer project in the north of the country.

He was speaking to the BBC from Jaffna after laying the foundation stone for a children's cancer ward in the town's main hospital.

Jayawardene took part in two separate days of a 27-day sponsored trek from the southern tip of Sri Lanka to its northernmost extremity, Point Pedro, devoted to the project - a distance of 670km (416 miles).

The former national captain said that when he was walking near Kurunegala in central Sri Lanka a six-year-old boy came out of a little house to hand over a tin of coins he had saved.

"It made my day," said Jayawardene.

"A lot of people have not seen the quality of Sri Lankans. Huge funds were raised in the south to build a hospital in the north.

"If that generation can heal our wounds, we'll be the happiest."

'Humbling experience'

He said that in the last few days of the trek Tamil people in the humblest homes had given 100 or so rupees (just under $1) and the fund-raisers felt almost guilty for accepting it.

The anti-cancer cause is dear to Sarinda Unamboowe (left) and Nathan Sivagananathan

Jayawardene's brother, Dishal, died of a brain tumour 15 years ago and the cricketer says he "will be involved in cancer projects till I die".

The cause is also dear to one of the two men behind the sponsored walk, Nathan Sivagananathan, who lost his sister to the disease.

He and his colleague in a large textiles firm, Sarinda Unamboowe, did the whole trek, starting on 1 July at the Dondra Head lighthouse and finishing on Wednesday.

They encouraged members of the public to join them. Thirteen others also did the whole walk and an impressive 25,000 walked for a section.

They included other cricketers such as TM Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara, Angelo Mathews and Dilhara Fernando.

"It's been amazing, humbling, a great experience," Nathan told the BBC, nursing numerous injuries.

"It's been 670km of pain, blisters and skin splints. We're not athletes!" he said.

"But overall it was an amazing journey. People who had no means of being generous, were generous."

He hit on the idea of seeking sponsorship for every kilo he lost in weight. He says some people promised $1,000 per kilo - and as he thinks he has lost 15kg, that means a lot more money for the hospital.

"It was the most incredible experience in my life," Sarinda Unamboowe told the BBC. He said that even in sparsely populated places people emerged from banks, rotary clubs and schools to donate.

They had no need to camp as originally planned because many hotels and guest-houses offered them free rooms.

So far the venture has raised $1.25m (?766,000). The required target is $2m (?1.22m)

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Taking the heat

29 July 2011 Last updated at 23:25 GMT By Lyse Doucet Southern Afghanistan Admiral Mike Mullen will hear from senior and junior officers about the challenges they face Summer in southern Afghanistan is blazing hot in every way; temperatures soar and the fighting season reaches its peak.

But this year it really is boiling hot.

We landed at midnight at Kandahar military airfield, on aircraft bringing the top US military advisor Admiral Mike Mullen and his team to take the temperature here.

Even at that hour, the blazing heat of the day still lingered.

In recent months audacious Taliban attacks have killed leading Afghan figures and key US allies.

It has left Afghans anxious and uncertain at a time when the US is preparing to pull out the 33,000 extra troops it put on the ground last year.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff tried to take some of the heat out of that worry.

Slower drawdown

"We expected these kind of spikes in the campaign including spectacular assassinations," Admiral Mullen said matter of factly just before boarding the C-32 military plane that took him from the seat of American power to America's battle in southern Afghanistan.

"They are not surprising," he emphasised.

In harm's way: US officials describe recent gains as 'fragile'

Just days ago, Kandahar Mayor Ghulam Haider Hamidi was killed by a suicide bomber in broad daylight.

In neighbouring Uruzgan province, an assault involving multiple suicide bombings killed at least 17 Afghans, including BBC reporter Ahmed Omed Khpulwak.

"This campaign has been tense and worrying for years," Admiral Mullen told me as he strode across the tarmac at the Andrews Air Force base just outside Washington. "We are moving in the right direction," he insisted.

But there was also a note of caution. The gains from the past year of intensified, US-led military operations, including targeted killings, were "fragile and reversible."

That is the catchphrase now used by senior US military officers, including the last commander here, General David Petraeus who will soon take up his new post of CIA director.

Admiral Mullen, the US President's most senior military advisor, is known to have preferred a slower drawdown of US forces than the plan recently announced. 10,000 US soldiers will leave this year, and another 23,000 by the end of 2012.

Power broker

But now his job is to carry it out. He pointed out that by the end of next year, there would still be 68,000 US soldiers in Afghanistan.

That is double the number when President Barack Obama took office.

He also mentioned forces from the Nato coalition as well as a "significant build-up" of Afghan National Security Forces.

Asked about Afghans' nervousness over the timing of the pull-out, he said he was "confident there were enough forces to reassure" them.

The US's key ally and main power broker in the south, Ahmed Wali Karzai, the President's half brother, was recently assassinated by his own bodyguard.

His death left a dangerous power vacuum, but one senior US military source said opinion was divided on its impact.

"He worked with us on some issues, on others he was obstacle; for example, when it came to improving governance."

Magic trick

Aggressive clearing operations over the past year, and a massive injection of American aid, have pushed the Taliban back from many districts.

US officials portray suicide bombings as signs of Taliban weakness. But for many Afghans these brazen attacks confirm the insurgents' ability to confront more conventional military might.

As on the many other trips he has made to this region, Admiral Mullen will be briefed by senior commanders and also hear from more junior officers about the challenges they are facing in this fight.

Comedian Jon Stewart and other celebrities joined Admiral Mullen on his trip to the region

He has also brought some American entertainers with him "to bring a smile to their faces" including popular television comedian Jon Stewart, basketball legend Karl Malone, and world famous magician David Blane, who told me he was bringing a "lot of amazing magic".

I asked if he had a magic trick that could bring peace. "I want to bring peace everywhere," he replied with a broad grin. "That's why I like doing magic."

For the past four years, Admiral Mullen, who ranks as President Obama's top military advisor, has travelled to southern Afghanistan in the baking heat of summer so he can experience the gruelling conditions for his troops on this key battleground in the Taliban's main stronghold.

This is expected to be the admiral's last visit to see the soldiers in the field before he retires in two months.

But he brushed aside any notion this was a "farewell tour." He knows a lot can still happen in this hottest of seasons in Afghanistan.

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Balochistan activists 'tortured'

28 July 2011 Last updated at 10:11 GMT HRW accuses the security forces of brazenly killing people Hundreds of political activists are being held and tortured by security forces in the Pakistani province of Balochistan, Human Rights Watch says.

The region is currently the centre of an insurgency by local tribesmen fighting for greater political rights.

A new report by the rights group focuses on political activists detained without charge. Many of them were later killed, the report says.

The Supreme Court is investigating the killings and disappearances.

Entitled "We can torture, kill and keep you for years", the report completes a three-part series of investigations on Balochistan by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan says that taken together they present a disturbing and violent picture of what many are calling Pakistan's secret dirty war.

"Pakistan's security forces are engaging in an abusive free-for-all in Balochistan as Baloch nationalists and suspected militants 'disappear' and in many cases are executed," HRW Asia Director Brad Adams said.

"The national government has done little to end the carnage in Balochistan, calling into question its willingness or ability to control the military and intelligence agencies."

Pakistani authorities routinely deny claims of abuses in Balochistan.

'Propaganda'

The latest 132-page report says state security remains responsible for most of the abuses.

This includes holding detainees as young as 12 years old without charge - as well as the increasing torture and killing of those held, it says.

Balochistan is the scene of frequent attacks

The report details 45 alleged cases of enforced disappearances, the majority in 2009 and 2010. It says that while hundreds of people have been "forcibly disappeared" in Balochistan since 2005, dozens of new enforced disappearances have occurred since Pakistan returned to civilian rule in 2008.

The report is based on over 100 interviews by HRW in Balochistan in 2010 and 2011 with family members of "disappeared" people, former detainees, local human rights activists, lawyers and witnesses to government abductions.

It says that those targeted are primarily Baloch nationalist activists or suspected Baloch militants.

"Pakistani security services are brazenly disappearing, torturing, and often killing people because of suspected ties to the Baloch nationalist movement," Mr Adams said. "This is not counterinsurgency - it is barbarism and it needs to end now."

Security officials in Balochistan routinely dismiss such claims as part of propaganda by separatists.

They say all those arrested have been produced in courts.

In a recent interview, the top security official in Balochistan told the BBC the killings were the result of infighting amongst the nationalists.

But other security officials have also told the BBC that they have detained the activists.

They say the insurgents are being supported by India and it is the duty of Pakistan's security forces to do their utmost to suppress them.

The report also highlights how difficult conditions are getting for ordinary citizens in Balochistan. The province has strategic importance as it borders Iran and Afghanistan.

US officials say the Afghan Taliban leadership have their headquarters in the province, a claim Pakistan denies.

Balochistan, Pakistan's largest and most sparsely populated province, is also rich in minerals - with vast untapped deposits of oil, gas, copper and gold.

But locals say most of this remains under the control of the federal government - its policies have left them little choice, many say, but to side with the insurgents.

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England can be great - Anderson

Venue: Trent BridgeDate: 29 July - 2 AugustStart time: 1100 BSTCoverage: Live ball-by-ball Test Match Special commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra, BBC Radio 4 Long Wave & BBC Sport website; live video scorecard on Red Button (not Freeview); live text commentary on BBC Sport website & mobile; watch live on Sky Sports (subscription required); highlights on Channel 5Broad aiming to keep pressure on India

Pace bowler James Anderson says England can achieve "great things" as they move nearer to topping the world Test rankings for the first time.

England, 1-0 up in the four-Test series with India, will take the number one spot with victory by two Tests or more.

"Everyone's chipping in. If we need someone to step up, generally someone is doing that," said Anderson.

"We're trying to improve each day, as individuals and as a team. If we can do that, we know we can do great things."

Anderson, 28, took seven wickets in the first Test at Lord's, including 5-65 in the second innings, to help England record a 196-run win over the tourists.

"Lord's has gone now," he added. "We enjoyed that last day, enjoyed winning.

"Becoming the number one team in the world is an overriding goal, but it's not something we go into each game thinking about."

Anderson's call for England to consign the first Test to history was backed by Stuart Broad, who enjoyed a return to form in the first Test, taking seven wickets and scoring 74 second-innings runs.

"We're delighted with the win but it means nothing unless we play well at Trent Bridge," he said.

Anderson tells England to 'hit reset button'

"India will come back hard at us and it will be a very exciting Test. The great thing about Trent Bridge is that you always know you're in at as a bowler with the wicket and that creates interesting cricket."

While England are prepared for India to up their game, the tourists are set to line up on Friday without left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan, who limped out of the attack at Lord's with a hamstring injury.

"I am not 100% sure if we will play Zaheer or not," said captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

"We don't want to risk anyone if that only increases the chances of him getting injured further. It is very important to get the guys fully fit."

If Zaheer is ruled out, his place will be taken by either Munaf Patel or Sreesanth, with the latter more likely to get the nod.

The tourists were also hampered at Lord's by an illness to batsman Sachin Tendulkar and an elbow injury sustained fielding by opener Gautam Gambhir, meaning that their batting order had to be rejigged in the second innings.

"It was tough for some of our batsmen because most of them were batting in different slots from their original number," added Dhoni.

"Sachin was much better [on Monday] but I wouldn't say he was 100%.

"Rahul Dravid opened, Sachin had to bat at a different number, Gautam batted at a different number. That also added pressure.

"Most of the things that could have gone wrong in the game really went wrong. It was tough for both the bowlers and the batsmen."

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Brave reporter

28 July 2011 Last updated at 18:03 GMT Omed had recently married and leaves a baby daughter Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, who has been killed in a militant attack in the Afghan province of Uruzgan, worked as a reporter for the BBC Pashto service. His colleague, former BBC World Service Kabul bureau editor Dawood Azami, knew him for almost three years and remembers a man who was full of life.

On the morning he was killed, Omed filed a news report for the BBC in Pashto. It would turn out to be his last.

Dear BBC listeners, he began, I'm in a district where 1,700 new homes are being constructed. The residents here say they now have work and their town is being rebuilt. Later in the day, Omed went to the radio and television station in the provincial capital of Tarin Kowt, which also served as his office. He often worked there, getting access to the internet and editing radio reports.

He was inside when suicide bombers and other militants launched their attack. His brother says he sent him two text messages. The first read: "I am hiding. Death has come." In the second, he wrote: "Pray for me if I die." In the evening, Omed's family attended his funeral. They said his body had been hit by 11 bullets.

Like many Afghan civilians, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and paid for it with his life. Omed had recently married. His baby daughter is three months old.

Omed was just 25 but the variety and frequency of momentous events in his life had made him more mature than his true age.

He was polite and sensitive and could sit quietly for a long time and listen. But he was funny at the same time and would crack jokes and make all of us laugh.

Omed saw death every day - I was amazed he somehow always managed to keep happy despite living in such a volatile environment.

Omed was aware of what was going on around him and wanted to share the information about his part of the world with others.

He was very careful in his reporting and particularly the need to keep BBC principles in mind and be impartial, balanced and accurate.

His reports reached English-speaking audiences too. On one occasion he travelled hours to put questions to the Uruzgan governor in a special programme aimed at highlighting how security concerns were thwarting efforts to rebuild.

'You are not God'

Sometimes he would call me if an insurgent commander had threatened him for not reporting an attack or their views.

On other occasions it was local officials who were complaining.

Continue reading the main story

Ahmed Omed Khpulwak was one of those brave reporters who have created that bond of trust with the people”

End Quote Peter Horrocks BBC Global News director It was difficult for both of us. I remember when he told me once that he had had an argument on the telephone with a local militant commander.

I asked him what happened and he said: "I told the commander to go and do whatever you want. You are not God.''

On several occasions, I had to make calls to talk to the Taliban spokesman and Afghan officials explaining our policy and guidelines and telling them that they shouldn't be blaming our reporters if something was not covered.

Omed is the third BBC reporter to be killed in Afghanistan. Merwais Jalil died in Kabul in the civil war in the 1990s. Abdul Samad Roohani was killed by unknown gunmen in Helmand province three years ago.

A few months ago, I visited Newseum - the world famous museum of news and journalism in Washington - and the journalist memorial there. Among other colleagues, I also saw the name of Abdul Samad Roohani.

Never in my worst nightmares did I dream that Omed's name would be added to the memorial wall so soon.

He is survived by his parents, his wife and baby, his elder brother and three sisters.

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Afghan officer 'plotted attacks'

30 July 2011 Last updated at 16:49 GMT An Afghan army officer has been arrested on suspicion of working for the Taliban and plotting suicide attacks, intelligence officials say.

The officer, named as Gul Mohammed, had confessed that he was working with Taliban commanders, they said.

Infiltration of the security forces by Taliban sympathisers is a major threat to security.

However, correspondents say it is extremely rare for an acting army officer to be accused in this way.

"The National Directorate of Security arrested Gul Mohammad... who was an officer with the Afghan National Army and was intending to organise suicide and terrorist attacks," said NDS spokesman Lutfullah Mashal, quoted by AFP news agency.

Mr Mashal was unable to give details about the officer's rank.

Unusual case

He said he was accused of plotting attacks in three areas of the capital Kabul where a number of international and Afghan military bases are located, as well as the Isaf headquarters and the defence ministry.

The BBC's Jill McGivering says infiltration of the Afghan army and police is a major concern, and there have been numerous instances in the past of uniformed officers attacking foreign troops who were training them and sharing facilities, she says.

In many of these cases, it was unclear whether the rogue officers were motivated by personal grudges or had been recruited by the Taliban, she adds.

The arrest comes amid a spate of militant activity including several killings of senior officials, as Nato hands over parts of the country to local security forces.

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Karnataka leader told to resign

28 July 2011 Last updated at 16:40 GMT Mr Yeddyurappa says the allegations are baseless India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has told one of its top leaders to resign after an anti-corruption panel named him as a key suspect in an illegal mining scandal.

A BJP spokesman told reporters the party had advised BS Yeddyurappa "to tender his resignation immediately".

Mr Yeddyurappa, Karnataka state's chief minister, denies the allegations.

The anti-corruption report says the alleged scam cost the exchequer more than $3bn (?1.8bn) from 2006-2010.

Correspondents say illegal mining has allegedly been rife for years in Karnataka. The state produces about 45 million tonnes of iron ore a year and exports more than half of it to China.

'Has to be change'

"The BJP parliamentary board unanimously decided there has to be a change in the leadership of the BJP legislature party in the state of Karnataka," BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad told reporters in Delhi.

Later in the day, Mr Yeddyurappa sent a letter confirming his resignation to BJP president Nitin Gadkari, reports in the Indian media said.

BJP leaders and assembly members in Karnataka are to meet on Friday to begin choosing a new leader in his place.

The corruption panel report - officially submitted on Wednesday but widely leaked last week - names several other members of the BJP government, as well as Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) politicians in connection with the alleged scam.

The report details what it says is the illegal transport and export of iron ore from the state.

The embattled chief minister is also facing charges of corruption and nepotism in land deals and is being investigated separately by the courts.

Mr Yeddyurappa belongs to the influential Lingayat community - correspondents say his departure could bring down the BJP's only government in southern India.

The affair is highly embarrassing for the party after months on the offensive against India's governing Congress party, which itself is embroiled in a series of damaging corruption scandals.

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Pakistan gunmen kill Shia Muslims

30 July 2011 Last updated at 11:26 GMT The van was sprayed with bullets Gunmen opened fire on a van in the city of Quetta, south-west Pakistan, killing 11 Shia Muslims in a suspected sectarian attack, police say.

Seven people were killed on the spot and four others died en route to hospital. One woman was among the dead.

The attack comes a day after gunmen killed seven Shia pilgrims at a bus stop in the city centre.

Angered by the attacks, locals from the Shia community burnt cars and offices in Quetta, capital of Balochistan.

Correspondents say the attack will add to the growing sense of insecurity among Pakistan's minority Shia community.

Brazen attack The killing sparked protests by Shia residents

The group was travelling in a packed passenger van near the outskirts of Quetta when gunmen sprayed it with bullets.

"Unidentified gunmen riding [a motorbike] opened fire at a Suzuki van carrying a group of people on their way to the main city from Hazara town," said Balochistan's police chief, Rao Amin Hashim.

The gunmen managed to escape.

There has been a notable increase in sectarian violence across Pakistan in recent years.

Islamist freed

The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Pakistan's deadliest militant group, has said it was behind Saturday's attack.

The group has strong ties to al-Qaeda and has carried out high profile attacks against US diplomats and Pakistan military targets in the country, the BBC's Shoaib Hasan reports from Karachi, on the border of Balochistan.

But its focus remains on the Shia community - which it regards as apostates, our correspondent says.

The attack comes soon after the release of Malik Ishaq, head of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, after a decade in jail.

When a local journalist asked him what he now intended to do, Ishaq's reply was chilling, our correspondent says. He said his organisation would continue its "good work" - fighting those who opposed their version of Islam.

Balochistan, on the border with Afghanistan, is also fighting a regional separatist insurgency as well as Islamic militancy.

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Nepal landslides claim 12 lives

21 July 2011 Last updated at 14:23 GMT Monsoon rains have also caused widespread flooding in Nepal A Dutch trekker has been killed by a landslide in Nepal.

Another trekker and their guide were injured in the landslide in Langtang region north-west of Kathmandu.

The Dutchman is the 12th person to die this week in a series of landslides in the mountainous nation, officials say.

In one incident, a girl of 17 was killed when her home was buried in debris outside the capital, AFP news agency reported. Heavy monsoon rains trigger landslides every year in Nepal.

Analysts say the number of casualties has risen notably this year, and that the increase in landslides may be linked to changing weather patterns and deforestation.

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'Bubble' babies

21 July 2011 Last updated at 06:26 GMT By Poonam Taneja BBC Asian Network 'Bubble baby' Khadija shortly after her bone marrow transplant A leading doctor who treats children born without an immune system has revealed a disproportionate number of his patients are Asian.

Professor Andrew Cant says that 35% of children he treats are British Asian.

In most cases the parents are first cousins who have married each other.

Severe Combined Immune Deficiency Syndrome is a rare inherited genetic disorder. Around one in 300,000 children is born with the condition, often known as "bubble baby syndrome".

Professor Cant, director of the Children's Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at the Great North Children's Hospital in Newcastle, says that South Asians would normally be expected to account for 5% of patients.

Early testing

Khadija Ibrahim, aged 7, was born with a defective immune system. Her mother Samina suspected there was a problem soon after her daughter was born.

"When she was three to four months old she started catching infections. So every time we went out to the park or anywhere she'd always come back with an infection and she'd have to go onto antibiotics, so we were in and out of hospital every other week," she said.

Continue reading the main story

Severe defects mean that even a simple germ, that in healthy people causes nothing more than a cold, will cause their death within a year of being born”

End Quote Professor Andrew Cant Children's Bone Marrow Transplant Unit Subsequent tests revealed Khadija's immune system was not functioning properly.

Professor Cant explains the implications of immune deficiency.

"Severe defects mean that even a simple germ, that in healthy people causes nothing more than a cold, will cause their death within a year of being born," he said.

A bone marrow transplant was Khadija's only chance of survival.

This was carried out at Professor Cant's unit, one of only two centres in the UK and Ireland that treat "bubble babies".

Khadija has since made a full recovery. During a trip to London with her family she talks excitedly about the tourist attractions she hopes to visit.

It is hard to believe this energetic, effervescent young girl was once so sick that a kiss from her mother had the potential to kill her.

Other children are not so fortunate. Mohammed Mahboub knows all too well the pain of losing a young child to this illness.

He and his wife witnessed their five-year-old daughter struggle through the condition after undergoing an unsuccessful bone marrow transplant.

Now fully recovered Khadija is able to go sightseeing without fear of catching infections

"It was a battle for five years, every aspect of this illness…you can't say there was one day where it was easy going, every single day was a battle," he said.

Cousin marriages

Every year between 30 to 40 children undergo bone marrow transplants at Professor Cant's unit, of which 35% of patients are Asian.

Professor Cant says that in almost all cases, the children are the product of first cousin marriages.

"If you marry your cousin, you and your husband or wife will have a copy of the same defective gene that you've inherited from your common relative, usually a grandparent or a great grandparent.

"That means that your children have a one in four risk of picking up two copies of the defective gene and so having a part of their immune system missing," he explained.

Professor Cant hopes that increased awareness will encourage couples in consanguineous marriages to be aware of the risks and seek help earlier if they suspect a problem.

He believes this would opens up the possibility in many cases of ante-natal diagnosis or post-natal diagnosis.

The earlier the diagnosis the higher the chances there are of a child surviving.

"Luckily we've seen Khadija grow and she's done really well. There is always hope," said Samina.

You can hear more on Asian Network Reports on the BBC Asian Network at 1230 BST and 1800 BST Monday to Friday and after on BBC iPlayer

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Battle of Tora Bora

21 July 2011 Last updated at 10:26 GMT By Gordon Corera Security Correspondent, BBC News Only a few months after 9/11, American troops located Osama Bin Laden in the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan - so how was he able to evade them?

As members of the British Special Boat Service (SBS) team listened in to conversations on a captured short wave radio, they heard a voice they believed to be their target.

Two of the team spotted a tall figure in a camouflage jacket moving with a 50-man protective detail, who went into a cave through a hidden entrance.

Only a few months after the 11 September 2001 attacks, Osama Bin Laden seemed to be cornered in the mountains of Afghanistan, close to the Pakistani border.

Tora Bora promised to be his final stand. So how did he escape?

The SBS soldiers had joined an American-led team alongside CIA and US Special Forces who had followed Bin Laden from Jalalabad into the White Mountains and finally to Tora Bora, a remote complex of caves.

Once the team approached the foot of the mountains, they took over a schoolhouse as a base.

Four men headed into the mountains, accompanied by 10 Afghans. It was the most rugged terrain many had ever experienced.

The multi-storied cave complex at Tora Bora was widely thought to be Bin Laden's headquarters

When they reached an outcrop and saw a large group of up to about 900 al-Qaeda figures, the battle for Tora Bora began.

The commander back at base, Gary Berntsen, issued orders to open fire. He only told headquarters after the fact.

The team called in air strikes over the next 56 hours.

"We threw everything at him. I didn't even know we had that many B52 or B1s," one of the Special Forces soldiers who was on the ground told the BBC, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Everybody was trying to get into the fight because… he was there. I can tell you that we dropped so much munitions on this place that we actually changed the landscape. The map is different."

'Political calculations'

More soldiers joined the team, but it never numbered more than 100. Three sections made a push up the mountain.

Further conversations overheard on captured al-Qaeda radios indicated that Bin Laden was still alive. The tone of his intercepted communications changed.

"It became more of desperation that doom is coming," recalls one American soldier. The Americans believed he was within a mile and a quarter (2 km) of one of the teams.

Continue reading the main story

As they moved across Afghanistan pursuing Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, British teams discovered plans for a follow-up attack to 9/11, according to CIA officer Gary Berntsen:

"They were the ones that debriefed the individual in question. We had had access to that prisoner. The British did it.

"And the British - a very capable British officer - was the one that was able to gain the confidence of an al-Qaeda member who then told him that the follow-on attacks to 9/11 are going to be 20 tonnes of explosives in Singapore, they're going to destroy the US, British and Israeli embassies there."

Following the interrogation, Singaporean authorities conducted their first raid on 9 December 2001 and went on to find surveillance video and bomb-making instructions. They said a major plot had been foiled.

Members of that team wanted to push forward but were told to wait since they lacked numbers.

"Every now and again, we'd talk about mutiny and just moving up," a member recalls.

The strategy, as with the whole Afghan campaign, was to limit the number of American boots on the ground.

Instead Afghan fighters would operate under the direction of the small CIA/Special Forces teams, supported by air power.

But at Tora Bora, the Afghan mujahideen proved unreliable allies. They refused to fight at night leaving al-Qaeda to reoccupy ground that had been painfully won.

At one point they agreed a ceasefire which may even have secretly assisted Bin Laden. "I don't think they were properly trained," recalls the anonymous Special Forces soldier. "And I don't think their heart was in it."

Berntsen asked for 800 US Rangers to be placed between Bin Laden and the border, or to enter the mountains from the Pakistani side. His request was denied.

"Once you have to ask Washington for assistance, then all sorts of political calculations enter in and… unfortunately that's what occurred," Berntsen told the BBC.

'Military incompetence'

The commander of the CIA Afghan operation, Hank Crumpton, spoke to the top military commander who said it would take weeks to get troops in.

"Tora Bora was just a case of military incompetence," argues Richard Clarke, at the time, a White House counter-terrorism adviser.

"They had plenty of time, they had the people, they had the information - this was not a matter of miscommunication. This was a matter of general officers deciding not to do it because they didn't think it was their mission."

Continue reading the main story

After Bin Laden's escape from Tora Bora came the lost years, with many rumours but few strong leads. The $25m bounty attracted the odd amateur, among them Gary Faulkner - a Colorado construction worker and former convict who was eventually arrested in Pakistan in local dress carrying a sword.

"Look at all the military guys. They're dressed up in all these special op outfits and they carry all this ridiculous gear and all this junk that's fine if you've got a helicopter to drop you," he told the BBC.

He says his time in prison gave him a unique skill set: "I got a different type of training because I'm into someone else's backyard whether it's another town, another state - without the special ops and the computers and the satellites.

"The objective was not to kill or destroy or blow stuff up. The objective was to go in there quietly as a thief and boost him, and take him back down."

Mr Faulkner returned to the US after his arrest in June 2010, but has vowed to go back.

Many are angry that the US did not use marines based in Kandahar, not far away.

Cofer Black, the CIA's director of counter-terrorism at the time, blames the decision on a reluctance to risk troops.

"When you compare that to a war that went on for 10 years with American and British troops fighting, in hindsight you can say… it would have been well worth it," he says.

"If I'd had any wish, it would have been I'd got up off my desk and made a call and said, 'I want to see the president.'"

General Tommy Franks, then in charge of Central Command (CentCom), made the decision not to send in reinforcements. He declined to comment. Other colleagues reject the idea it was a mistake.

"You could have waited longer and put troops in. In that same amount of time, Bin Laden could have left," argues General Richard Myers, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"So there was a sense of urgency. And the decision was left to General Franks, the CentCom commander, and we backed him. We thought, 'Yep, that sounds good'. I'd do the same thing again."

Berntsen remains angry. "The US military spends a trillion dollars a year on defence. Why is it that they could not get forces into that area? It's a ridiculous statement that they couldn't get people there.

"We had the marines actually down in Kandahar. They could have been lifted up there. If there is a will there is a way."

A Delta Force officer asked for mines to be laid at the back of the mountains to close off a potential escape route to Pakistan. This was also denied.

"We don't use mines that way," argues Myers, a view which is disputed by some Special Forces individuals involved. Some believe the decision was the result of a commitment made after pressure from the British.

As the battle ended, the anonymous Special Forces soldier trudged up to the last known location of Bin Laden. It was cold with high winds and the rain was coming down.

The air assault had pulverised the landscape to the point that he remembers wading knee-deep through a strange mixture of sand and dirt created from the bombed rock.

"And the mujahideen come up and they say 'OK. Osama's gone to Pakistan. We're going home.'"

Bin Laden had escaped to Pakistan - his exact route remains disputed - and there he would remain, out of sight, for close to another ten years until another joint CIA/Special Forces mission finished the task that had been set at Tora Bora.

The Hunt for Bin Laden is on BBC Radio 4 on Friday 15 July and Friday 22 July at 1100 BST. Or listen again to both episodes via the BBC iPlayer.

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Siachen fire kills India officers

22 July 2011 Last updated at 06:36 GMT Siachen is regarded as the world's highest battlefield Two Indian army officers burned to death when their shelter caught fire in the disputed Siachen glacier area of the Himalayas, the army told the BBC.

Two soldiers were injured when they tried to rescue the officers on Thursday night, an army spokesman said.

An inquiry has been ordered into how the fire started, he added.

Siachen borders the Pakistani- and Indian-administered portions of disputed Kashmir and is regarded as the world's highest battlefield.

India believes that the glacier is of vital, strategic and diplomatic value.

The two countries agreed a ceasefire deal over the Siachen glacier in 2003 but thousands of troops are deployed in the region.

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Rising toll

Civilian casualty figures for first few months of 2011 are showing a steep rise compared to the same period last year.

May 2011 has seen the most deaths of any month since the UN began recording civilian casualties in 2007, while June 2011 saw the most casualties recorded by improvised explosive device.

Suicide attacks have caused 52% more casualties during the first half of 2011 than the same period in 2010. This is the largest rise of any form of attack recorded by the UN Mission in Afghanistan.

* To 30 June 2011. ** Incidents where civilians are killed as a result of not heeding warnings or obeying instructions from military personnel when close to vehicles or checkpoints. Source: Unama

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Tata to launch 'cheapest homes'

16 July 2011 Last updated at 11:45 GMT Local NGOs provide solar panels to some rural homes. Tata says panels are an optional extra in their models. India's Tata group says it will launch cheap housing that can be built within a week for 500 euros, according to Indian media reports.

A spokesman for Tata, which in 2009 launched the world's cheapest car, the Nano, said the pre-fabricated houses would help the rural poor buy a home.

Prototypes are already being tested with a view to launch by next year, the PTI news agency said.

Indian authorities say millions of homes are needed in rural areas.

The company is in discussion with state governments, the agency said.

"It is [a] quick house built in seven days if you have a patch of land. Basic model of 20 sq metres, with flat roof will cost around 500 euros (32,000 rupees; ?440)," Sumitesh Das, Tata Steel's head of global research is quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency.

The company is also creating plans for slightly larger and more expensive houses, with facilities such as solar panels, according to the Times of India newspaper.

The company says it is in discussion with state governments and village councils, but plans are at an early stage and it is unclear if the supply chain for building materials for the houses are in place or if the relevant authorities will find the models suitable.

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Blast hits Karzai brother service

14 July 2011 Last updated at 18:48 GMT The BBC's Bilal Sarwary was a street away when the explosion happened

A suicide bomber has killed four people at a memorial service in Kandahar for the assassinated half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Officials say the bomber apparently hid explosives in his turban and detonated them near the entrance of the mosque.

President Karzai was not present at the memorial. Four of his other brothers were but escaped unharmed.

Ahmad Wali Karzai, a controversial but key figure in Nato's battle against the Taliban, was killed by his bodyguard.

President Karzai flew into Kandahar for his brother's funeral on Wednesday, but left the city before Thursday's service.

No group has so far admitted carrying out the mosque attack.

The governor of Kandahar province, Toryalai Wesa, said 15 people were injured.

Another explosion later hit the Herat Bazaar in the centre of Kandahar, killing one person and injuring several others, said the city's police chief.

Chaos and panic

The explosion in the Red Mosque took place just after noon (0730 GMT) in the southern Afghan city, as the service for Ahmad Wali Karzai was coming to an end.

Continue reading the main story Bilal Sarwary BBC News, Kandahar

Herat Bazaar is in the heart of Kandahar.

Several shopkeepers said as soon as the bomb there went off, they closed their shops.

Attacks in recent weeks have affected business, they said.

One trader said he used to export a great deal of dried fruit but the Pakistani and Indian buyers were no longer visiting.

As soon it gets dark, shops close and people go home.

Locals say property prices have plummeted in Kandahar. One merchant said a plot in the upscale township of Ayno Meena cost $300,000 (?186,000) not long ago, but was now available for $250,000.

The township, which is home to senior government officials, merchants and wealthy Afghans, has seen several explosions recently.

Some residents suggested that criminals, rival gangs and private feuds were behind the violence, not the Taliban.

The security situation remains fragile in Kandahar city.

Officials say the attacker was stopped at the mosque's entrance, where he blew himself up.

Witnesses, including President Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omer, said he had hidden the explosives in his turban. Provincial intelligence chief Gen Mohammad Naeem Momin told the Associated Press that early investigations supported the reports.

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kandahar said that security was not as tight as it could have been around the mosque.

Tradition dictates that mourners are not searched when attending memorials, says our correspondent, and several tribal elders told him they had not been searched.

The interior ministry and medical sources said four people and the bomber had been killed.

Among those killed was Hikmatullah Hikmat, the head of Kandahar's Ulema Council, said the ministry. The council is an influential body of clerics in charge of regulating religious issues in the province.

The ministry said a child was also among the dead.

"There was a prayer going on and after that prayer, the man came close to the director of the religious council and exploded," said Kandahar Governor Wesa.

Officials say the casualty figures could have been much higher had the attacker been able to get inside the mosque itself, says our correspondent.

Four of President Karzai's brothers, several other Karzai family members and Mr Wesa were in the mosque at the time. None were believed to have been hurt.

Appeal to Taliban

Ahmad Wali Karzai was shot twice by his family friend and long-time head of security, Sardar Mohammad, on Tuesday. The bodyguard was himself killed almost immediately.

The Taliban said the attack was one of their top achievements in 10 years of war. However, correspondents say the bodyguard's motives remain unclear and it seems unlikely that someone so close to the Karzai family was working for the insurgents.

Ahmad Wali Karzai was seen by many as a key anti-Taliban figure, someone who stood up to them, using his private army and vast network to fight the insurgents, our correspondent says.

But he adds that his critics accused him of undermining the central government in Kabul.

Security was tight during Wednesday's funeral

On Wednesday, President Karzai wept at the graveside, and kissed his dead half-brother's face as senior politicians looked on.

The president then appealed to the militants to stop the bloodshed.

"My message for the Taliban is, my countryman, my brother, stop killing your own people," said Mr Karzai. "It's easy to kill and everyone can do it, but the real man is the one who can save people's lives."

Tuesday's killing was the latest and most high-profile in a series of assassinations of senior politicians and security commanders across the country.

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War ruling

14 July 2011 Last updated at 14:38 GMT By Suvojit Bagchi BBC News, Delhi Special Police Officers are paid about $60 a month The Indian Supreme Court's order to the authorities in Chhattisgarh state to disband civilian militias has come as a major blow to the government.

The court has said the militias are unconstitutional.

The government regards the armed groups as an important part of its battle against Maoist insurgents.

Chhattisgarh is one of the states at the heart of the Maoist rebel insurgency.

The Supreme Court ordered the state government to disband two groups: the partially state-funded Salwa Judum (Peace Movement) and Koya Commandos, a fully-funded local tribal outfit.

The groups are not part of the regular police force.

The members of the groups - armed and trained by the government - are called Special Police Officers (SPOs). Each member is paid around $60 a month to fight Maoist guerrillas.

The court said that employing such "ill equipped youngsters… would endanger the lives of others in the society".

Currently more than 70,000 SPOs are deployed in various Indian states against rebel forces. There are 6,500 SPOs in Chhattisgarh.

The authorities say the court's decision will seriously affect anti-Maoist operations. They say that the SPOs know the local terrain, dialects and the movement of rebels better than the paramilitaries.

'Helpless'

A senior local police officer told the BBC that the withdrawal of the SPOs would shrink the security presence in Maoist-affected areas.

Chhattisgarh needs 70,000 security personnel, but has only 45,000 of them, say analysts.

SPOs also guide the police and paramilitaries during anti-Maoist operations, so their absence will be felt here too, officials say.

Even the SPOs themselves are panicking after the court order.

"Our arms have been taken away, we cannot move out of the police camp, and I have never felt so helpless," said Dileep Sethia, a former SPO from restive Dantewada district.

Chhattisgarh is one of the states at the heart of the Maoist rebel insurgency

"Please must ask the authorities to make sure that the rebels lay down their arms or else this will become a one-sided war. Our families will also be killed by the rebels."

Eight months ago, when I first met Mr Sethia, while travelling through Chhattisgarh, he carried a pistol given to him by the state, and headed a 65-member strong anti-rebel militia.

The stocky 35-year-old rebel-turned-militia member boasted of losing "count of the number" of Maoists he had killed in the last 10 years.

Even independent analysts are unsure whether the court's order will truly put a stop to these militias.

A local lawyer, Sudeep Srivastava, said the militias could be resurrected by the state government under different names.

But few doubt that in the meantime the court judgement could come as a blow to other state governments who have been using SPOs to strengthen security.

"All over the country the state has appointed SPOs to sabotage democratic institutions," said human rights activist Harish Dhawan.

The problem is that the colonial Indian Police Act of 1861 legalised the appointment of SPOs, saying it was "acceptable" to hire "residents of the neighbourhood" to quell "unlawful assembly or riots or disturbances of peace".

Clearly, there is only a thin dividing line between neighbourhood watch groups and civil militias in India's Maoist strongholds.

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