Race against time for Dhaka rescuers
By Anonymous on Apr 28, 2013 02:37 am 27 April 2013 Last updated at 18:11 ET 
There is no official figure on the number of people still missing
Rescue teams remain hopeful of finding survivors trapped underneath a factory complex that collapsed on Wednesday in Bangladesh, killing some 350 people.
The fire service's head of operations, Mahbubur Rahman, said "feeble cries" and conversations could still be heard.
On Saturday, 29 people were pulled from the rubble of the Rana Plaza compound in Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka.
Meanwhile, two engineers alleged to have approved the building's safety a day before it came down were arrested.
Police said they had ordered an evacuation of the building on Tuesday after cracks appeared in the structure on Tuesday, but that the factories ignored them and were operating the next day.
The owners of three of the five clothing factories inside were also detained after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina promised that those responsible would be hunted down.
They face preliminary charges of causing death by negligence.
However, the overall owner of the complex, Sohel Rana, reportedly a leader of the youth wing of the ruling Awami League, is in hiding and has so far avoided arrest. Police have detained Mr Rana's wife in an effort to persuade him to hand himself in.
One minister has alleged that Rana Plaza was built without permits.
'She must return' Thousands of relatives of missing workers gathered at the site to watch as survivors and the dead were pulled from the rubble on Saturday.
Police said that 353 bodies had so far been found, 301 of which had been identified. A further 2,431 people are known to have survived.
There is no official figure on the number of people still missing, but Akram Hossain, a deputy director of the fire service, said their chances of survival were "diminishing by the minute".
Mr Rahman said the rescue effort was becoming increasingly difficult for emergency workers as survivors were losing their strength to call for help.
"There are many dead bodies but our top priority is finding those who may still be alive," he told the Agence France-Presse news agency. "There are some survivors. We can hear their feeble cries or hear them talking to each other."
Mr Rahman said rescuers were digging tunnels through the rubble with bare hands, drills and shovels because they feared heavier equipment could cause further collapse.
Some 2,431 people are known to have survived the building collapse
"Pillars and beams are the biggest problem. Sometimes, even if we can locate survivors, we can't reach them because of these beams. They take a lot of time to cut through."
One of those who was rescued on Saturday, Merina Begum, said she and seven other workers had survived without food or water. She told AFP: "When the rescuers brought juice, ice cream and cold water, it was the tastiest food I've ever had."
Meanwhile, a man wept as he waited for news of his wife, who worked at one of the factories. "My son says that his mother will come back some day. She must return!" Abul Basar told the Associated Press.
Bangladesh has one of the largest garment industries in the world, providing cheap clothing for major Western retailers that benefit from its widespread low-cost labour.
But the industry has been widely criticised for its low pay and limited rights given to workers and for the often dangerous working conditions in garment factories.
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Rich elderly 'should shun benefits'
By Anonymous on Apr 28, 2013 03:29 am 27 April 2013 Last updated at 20:29 ET 
Iain Duncan Smith the wealthy elderly have a choice as to whether to hand back some of their benefits
Wealthy elderly people who do not need benefit payments to help with fuel bills or free travel should give the money back to the authorities, the work and pensions secretary says.
Iain Duncan Smith told the Sunday Telegraph that he would "encourage" people who do not need such financial support "to hand it back".
But the decision whether or not to do so was up to them, he added.
He also criticised the BBC's coverage of his welfare reforms.
There has previously been a discussion in government of means testing to exclude richer pensioners, but Mr Duncan Smith said there were no plans to make that change.
He also said that the new universal credit - a payment that marks the biggest overhaul of the benefits system since the 1940s - was being implemented over four years because "I want to get these things right".
A pilot for the system is being launched on Monday for a small number of new claimants at a jobcentre in Ashton-under-Lyne, in Greater Manchester.
'Lazy' reporting Of the new credit scheme, Mr Duncan Smith said: "We want to say to people, you're claiming unemployment benefit but you're actually in work paid for by the state: you're in work to find work. That's your job from now on: to find work."
The BBC's political correspondent, Robin Brant, says free bus passes, television licences and help with winter fuel payments are benefits for all people over the required age, which Prime Minister David Cameron promised to keep at the last election - but he has come under intense pressure to change his mind.
The Liberal Democrats have proposed taxing the benefits, or reviewing them all together.
The government is in the final stages of deciding its spending plan for the next three years, with welfare accounting for the biggest chunk of it, our correspondent added.
And Mr Duncan Smith also said the government have "had a lot of moments with the BBC" regarding its coverage of his welfare reforms.
"They have always tended to to look at the welfare reforms from the jar that is marked - and it's a very leftist jar - 'less money bad, more money good'. So if you are reducing welfare you must be doing something rather nasty."
But he also said that "a lot of times" the BBC's reporting was "more lazy than politically motivated".
Read in browser » Mother tells of Dubai 'torture'
By Anonymous on Apr 28, 2013 03:19 am 27 April 2013 Last updated at 19:25 ET 
Grant Cameron, Karl Williams and Suneet Jeerh were on holiday when they were arrested
The mother of a British man accused of drug offences in Dubai has spoken of the "horror story" of his alleged torture by police.
A Dubai judge is due to give a verdict on Monday in the trial of Grant Cameron and fellow Londoners Suneet Jeerh and Karl Williams. They all deny charges.
Tracy Cameron told the BBC the three, who say they were given electric shocks, had been "treated appallingly".
A "dream holiday" had turned into "a really barbaric ordeal", she said.
The three men, who are charged with possessing, taking and intending to distribute illegal drugs, were arrested on holiday in August after police said they found a quantity of synthetic cannabis known as "spice" in their car.
Legal rights charity Reprieve says the charges should have been dropped and that the men - who went on trial in February - should be released because of the torture allegations.
Ms Cameron said that, when they were arrested, her son and his friends were put through "a pretty terrifying ordeal".
"They were taken back to their hotel room, they were beaten in their hotel room, it does appear they were separated from each other and each taken to a different room," she told BBC News.
Tracy Cameron says lawyers have told her to expect at least one guilty verdict for her son
"Karl was laid out on the bed, his trousers were stripped down and electric shocks were administered to his testicles while he was blindfolded.
"I believe all boys had guns held to their head - they were told they were going to die.
"Grant sustained electric shocks to his torso and I believe Suneet had shocks administered to him to the back of his head and his back."
All the men were pressured into signing statements written in Arabic which they did not understand, she said.
When her son told her of the torture in a phone call, Ms Cameron said she felt "beside myself, sheer horror, terror, just complete and utter meltdown really".
"Your son being arrested so far away from home is challenge enough to deal with but, once he told us how he'd been treated, I can only describe it as something from a horror story."
'Hugely common' Ms Cameron said she had been told by lawyers her son was likely to be found guilty of at least one of the charges and could be jailed for 15 years or longer.
Reprieve's Kate Higham said torture by Dubai police was "hugely common" and that the charity believed the men's "extremely plausible" account.
It was backed up by notes from Foreign Office staff who had visited the men and documented their injuries, she said.
"We've shown these to a doctor who's an expert in the assessment of torture and he's said that the injuries are consistent with the torture that the men described," she added.
She said that, if British experts were allowed access to the men, a simple diagnostic test would "very easily" prove they had been tortured.
The UK Foreign Office has called for a full, independent and impartial inquiry into the allegations and says it has raised them with "very senior officials" in the United Arab Emirates.
BBC world affairs correspondent Richard Galpin said there would be a chance for British officials to discuss the case with UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed during his state visit to the UK this week.
But foreign policy and bilateral trade issues would be at the heart of formal talks with the government, our correspondent added.
Ms Cameron said she hoped the president would listen: "I sincerely hope that he is able to look into the case and show a level of clemency to the boys because, sincerely, that's what needs to happen in this case and hopefully, once he's made aware, he can make that happen."
Police in the country have denied any wrongdoing.
Read in browser » M9 death teenager named by police
By Anonymous on Apr 27, 2013 04:57 pm 27 April 2013 Last updated at 05:57 ET 
A tent has been put on the carriageway as officers carried out their investigations
The M9 has been closed in both directions after a man's body was found on the carriageway in the Beancross area of Grangemouth.
It is understood the body was discovered shortly before 06:00 between junctions 5 and 6 of the eastbound carriageway.
The Scottish Ambulance Service attended, but the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police Scotland said it was attempting to establish the man's identity.
Officers asked anyone with any information to contact them on 101.
Read in browser » Iceland opposition 'wins election'
By Anonymous on Apr 28, 2013 12:38 am 26 April 2013 Last updated at 21:47 ET 
Bjarni Benediktsson (l) and Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson (r) both hope to become PM
Voters in Iceland are due to go to the polls in elections expected to oust the ruling centre-left coalition.
Analysts predict that two centre-right parties will be able to form a new cabinet, pledging to soften unpopular austerity policies.
This would mark a dramatic comeback for the centre-right, who were widely blamed for Iceland's near-economic collapse in 2008.
Their victory could also halt the island nation's EU membership talks.
Polls are due to open at 09:00 GMT and close at 22:00 GMT, with more than 230,000 voters eligible to cast their ballots.
Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, 70, is stepping down
The conservative Independence Party and their traditional coalition partners the Progressives are expected to secure a majority in the 63-strong parliament.
The parties' leaders Bjarni Benediktsson and Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson are then predicted to compete in a race to succeed the Social Democrat Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, who is retiring from politics.
The main governing Social Democratic Alliance will be delivered a heavy defeat in the polls, opinion polls suggest.
Many Icelanders are frustrated with the current government, saying that its austerity policies are too painful.
This is despite the fact that Iceland has seen steady growth in recent years amid falling unemployment rates.
The centre-right camp is promising debt relief and cut in taxes.
The two parties are also seen as Eurosceptic, and their poll success could slow down Iceland's ongoing efforts to become a member of the EU.
The Eurosceptics argue that Iceland already gets most of the benefits of full membership through existing free trade arrangements with the EU and by being part the Schengen visa-free travel zone.
First election results are expected shortly after the polls close.
Read in browser » Duchess records video for hospices
By Anonymous on Apr 27, 2013 08:13 pm 27 April 2013 Last updated at 20:13 ET 
Hospices are a lifeline for families, the duchess says in the video
The Duchess of Cambridge has made her first video message, in support of Children's Hospice Week.
In the two-minute appeal, Catherine - who is Royal Patron of East Anglia's Children's Hospices - said she had seen first-hand the "transformational" work done for children and their families.
"Children's Hospice Week is a time to recognise, celebrate and support the inspirational work of those hospices."
The week's organisers said they were delighted by the duchess' support.
The duchess's message continues: "Children's hospices provide lifelines to families at a time of unimaginable pain. The support they give is vital.
"In order to carry out this wonderful work, our help is needed. With our support, those providing children's palliative care can continue to offer these extraordinary services. It does not bear thinking about, what these families would do without this."
'A real boost' Barbara Gelb, chief executive of Together for Short Lives - which organises the week - said she was "delighted and very excited" about the the Duchess of Cambridge's support.
"I know this extraordinary backing will mean so much to all the UK's 49,000 children with palliative care needs and their families and will really help raise awareness of what these families need, today and in the future.
"The duchess's message will be a real boost to children's hospices and all the charities that deliver vital health and social care to these families."
East Anglia's Children's Hospices (Each) is one of several charities of which the Duchess of Cambridge is a patron, and the video includes clips of her on visits to its hospices.
The video was recorded at Clarence House and shows the duchess speaking directly to camera.
"There are 49 children's hospice services across the UK, all providing similar, invaluable and life enhancing care to thousands of families," she says in it.
Children's Hospice Week runs from 26 April to 3 May.
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