Afghan forces take security lead
By Anonymous on Jun 18, 2013 03:10 am 18 June 2013 Last updated at 02:11 ET 
The Afghan army has been growing in size and capability
Afghan forces are formally taking over security for the whole of the country from Nato-led troops, completing a process begun in 2011.
President Hamid Karzai is attending a ceremony in which the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) hands over control for the last 95 districts.
The event marks a significant milestone since US-led forces ousted the Taliban following the 9/11 attacks of 2001.
Ahead of the event, a suicide bomber killed three people in Kabul.
The attacker is believed to have targeted the convoy of Haji Mohammad Mohaqeq, the country's second vice-president and a leader of the Hazara ethnic minority, in west Kabul. Mr Mohaqeq escaped with minor injuries.
Nato's handover of security control started with Bamiyan in the summer of 2011.
The final districts to be handed over include 13 in Kandahar province - the birthplace of the Taliban - and 12 each in Nangarhar, Khost and Paktika, all bastions of insurgent activity along the border with Pakistan.
Continue reading the main story Analysis
David Loyn International development correspondent, BBC News
There are still 97,000 international troops in Afghanistan as part of the Nato-led mission but those numbers are reducing as the day for the end of combat operations comes closer.
The forces are increasingly engaged in the complex business of closing bases and packing kit; very few now go out on patrol.
The practical effect of today's event is not great - a handful of districts, mainly along the eastern frontier, and in Kandahar, move formally to full Afghan combat lead.
But the symbolic impact is profound. For the first time since the departure of Soviet forces in 1989, security across the whole of Afghanistan is now the responsibility of forces led by the Afghan government.
Between now and the final exit of international combat troops at the end of next year, they will support combat operations only when requested. Alongside training the only other assistance is helicopters to take out casualties. The Afghan forces remain inconsistent, but those who train them say the best are as good as any army in a developing country.
The number of Afghan security forces has been gradually increasing from fewer than 40,000 six years ago to nearly 350,000 today.
However, as it has taken over more responsibility for security, the Afghan army has suffered a sharp rise in casualties.
By comparison, international coalition casualties have been steadily falling since 2010.
A high desertion rate among Afghan forces has also meant that thousands of new recruits are needed each month to fill its ranks.
Despite the challenges, Isaf commander General Joseph Dunford recently told the BBC that the Afghan force is "getting good enough" to fulfil its role.
In recent Taliban attacks on the capital Kabul, Afghan rapid reaction police tackled the insurgents without having to call in Isaf forces.
The number of Isaf forces in Afghanistan peaked in 2011 at about 140,000, which included about 101,000 US troops.
Isaf currently has about 97,000 troops in the country from 50 contributing nations, the bulk of whom - some 68,000 - are from the US.
By the end of 2014 all combat troops should have left to be replaced - if approved by the Afghan government - by a smaller force that will only train and advise.
The pressure on contributing nations to withdraw their troops has been exacerbated by a series of "green-on-blue" attacks in which members of the Afghan security forces have killed coalition troops.
At least 60 Nato personnel died in such attacks in 2012. Many more Afghan security force members have died at the hands of their colleagues, in so-called "green-on-green" attacks.
US President Barack Obama has not yet said how many troops he will leave in Afghanistan along with other Nato forces at the end of 2014.
Washington has said that the Afghan government will get the weapons it needs to fight the insurgency including a fleet of MI-17 transport helicopters, cargo planes and ground support airplanes.
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G8 leaders to focus on tax and trade
By Anonymous on Jun 18, 2013 03:05 am 17 June 2013 Last updated at 23:47 ET 
On Monday, the US and EU launched negotiations on a major trade deal
Tax, trade and transparency are expected to dominate discussions on the second day of a summit of the G8 group of leading industrialised nations.
The issues - dubbed "The Three Ts" - were placed at the top of the agenda by the UK for its presidency of the G8.
Monday's meetings in Northern Ireland focused on the conflict in Syria.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was pressed to agree a joint communique calling for peace talks and better access for aid or face isolation.
After talks with his US counterpart Barack Obama, both men acknowledged their differences but said they shared a common desire to stop the bloodshed.
"Of course, our opinions don't coincide. But all of us want to stop the violence and we have agreed to push the parties to the negotiating table," Mr Putin told reporters.
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The meeting between the two leaders at times appeared tense
Mr Obama said they had instructed their teams to continue working towards hosting an international conference in Geneva that would aim to find a political solution to end the violence, which the UN says has left more than 93,000 people dead since March 2011.
In an interview with US broadcaster PBS, Mr Obama emphasised that "we're not taking sides in a religious war between Shia and Sunni" but aiming instead for a "stable, non-sectarian, representative government".
In his first direct remarks since the US said it would step up military support to Syrian rebels, he warned that anyone not involved in the detail might not understand "if you set up a no-fly zone, that you may not be actually solving the problem on the zone".
"We have to not rush into one more war in the Middle East."
His interview coincided with a White House announcement that the US would provide a further $300m of humanitarian aid for Syrians - split between Syria itself, where more than 4.25 million people have been displaced, and neighbouring countries dealing with the 1.6 million refugees.
'Ultimatum' From the moment he arrived at the G8 summit, Russia's president surely knew the talks on Syria would be difficult, reports the BBC's Bridget Kendall at Lough Erne, County Fermanagh.
Continue reading the main story G8: What is on the agenda?
Tuesday:
- 07:00: Bilateral meetings
- 08:30: Counter-terrorism
- 10:30: Tax transparency
- 14:30: Closing talks
- 15:30: UK PM press conference
- 15:45: Other leaders' press conferences
All timings BST
At a working dinner on Monday evening, he was more or less faced with an ultimatum - either join UK Prime Minister David Cameron and others in committing to peace talks and better access to humanitarian aid in Syria, or face being accused of blocking progress, our correspondent says.
And Mr Putin, it seems, does not want to be a deal-breaker, she adds.
After the dinner, during which no officials were present, British officials suggested that an agreement appeared to be close on a final communique on Syria. However, they said it would take more work on Tuesday morning to agree the precise language.
The hope is that if Russia chooses a form of unity rather than isolation, it could create a more positive climate in which to coax President Bashar al-Assad's government and opposition leaders in some form of negotiation. Both sides have so far not committed to travelling to Geneva.
'Biggest' trade deal Another major issue that will be discussed by the Group of Eight - the UK, US, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Canada and Japan - on Tuesday is ensuring tax compliance.
Continue reading the main story G8 facts
- Informal, exclusive body aimed at tackling global challenges
- Established in 1975 in Rambouillet, France
- Original members: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, US
- Later members: Canada (joined at 1976 summit, San Juan, Puerto Rico), Russia (joined at 1998 summit, Birmingham, UK)
Mr Cameron has committed to making "fighting the scourge of tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance a priority". The UK has said it also wants to ensure anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing measures are effective, and help poorer countries collect tax revenues.
Another priority for the UK's presidency of the G8 is advancing trade.
On Monday, the US and the European Union launched negotiations on what they said could be the "biggest bilateral trade deal in history".
The EU said a deal would add 119bn euros (£100bn; $160bn) to the EU economy and 95bn euros for the US.
European Commission chairman Jose Manuel Barroso said it would create "huge economic benefits". Mr Obama said a deal was achievable and that he would make it a priority.
G8 leaders also want to promote greater transparency about the ownership of companies and land, and also about where money flows.
The UK says removing conflict and corruption, having the presence of property rights and strong institutions are vital for countries to move from poverty to wealth.
The G8 leaders are also scheduled on Tuesday to discuss counter-terrorism and the paying of ransoms to hostage-takers, and will be joined by the leaders of other countries, including Mexico and Ethiopia, for a working lunch before the final news conference in the afternoon.
Read in browser » Army redundancy letters expected
By Anonymous on Jun 18, 2013 03:12 am 18 June 2013 Last updated at 00:58 ET 
The Army is planning to reduce its regular fighting force to 82,000 by 2017
Up to 5,000 military personnel are due to receive redundancy letters later in the third and biggest round of Army job cuts following the 2010 defence review.
They are part of a long-term plan to cut the number of regular soldiers from 102,000 to 82,000. The government plans to increase the number of reservists.
Those serving in Afghanistan will not be made redundant in this round of cuts unless they have volunteered.
The government has said the Army "must live within its means".
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) aims to reach its target of 82,000 regular soldiers by 2017 while the number of reservists is to increase from 15,000, in 2010, to 30,000 in 2018.
The latest cuts - the largest single tranche of redundancies - come at a time when the MoD is still negotiating its budget settlement ahead of the Whitehall spending review on 26 June.
Unsettling process BBC defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt said the latest redundancies were a result of the almost 8% cut to the MoD's budget announced in 2010 - and a powerful reason why the department has argued it cannot face more cuts in manpower in the current spending round.
She said different ranks and fields of expertise had been chosen for redundancy, with volunteers asked to come forward.
The restructuring of the Army was an unsettling process for many soldiers and their families, she added.
Maj Chris Braithwaite, who left the Army this week after he was told a year ago he would be made redundant, said the timing meant he was 87 days short of being entitled to much better pension rights.
Maj Braithwaite, who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the government's actions were contrary to the military covenant - a promise of a duty of care in return for sacrifices made.
"It's a real feeling of being let down - it's a bond of trust between the Armed Forces and the nation, the military covenant," he told BBC News.
"It's what makes the armed forces unique.
"We feel we've been let down and the trust we've placed in politicians and military leaders has not been repaid."
And the Army Families Federation has warned that redundancy for soldiers often meant "a complicated and worrying process" for their families.
'Very disruptive' Ministers have previously said they could not guarantee all of the redundancies would be made from those who applied.
Some 60% of redundancies in the first tranche had come from applicants and more than 70% in the second.
In the third round of cuts no personnel preparing for, serving on, or recovering from deployments on Wednesday will lose their jobs unless they have applied for redundancy.
But the MoD said personnel fitting into those categories could be affected by further cuts next year.
The Army says that, even as it makes the latest redundancies, it still needs to recruit 10,000 new soldiers and officers this year, as well as 6,000 reservists.
It says this is necessary in order to keep its structure and age range in balance, with both soldiers and officers needing to start at the bottom of the hierarchy.
On Friday, the Army's Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Peter Wall, said gaps between military resources and planned capabilities caused by spending cuts "could become quite dangerous, quite quickly".
Gen Wall said further efficiencies would be "very disruptive".
Prime Minister David Cameron, also speaking on Friday, told a Downing Street news conference the UK had "very strong armed forces and ones the whole country can be proud of".
"We're not going to be making further cuts to the numbers of our Army, navy or air force, they know what they have available."
But he said "no department can be excluded from being efficient, from saving money, from making sure we get the best possible value for every pound that we take from the taxpayers and spend".
Read in browser » No 10 to host 'web porn' summit
By Anonymous on Jun 17, 2013 07:59 pm 17 June 2013 Last updated at 19:59 ET 
Child murderers Mark Bridger and Stuart Hazell both viewed indecent images of children
Internet firms are to meet ministers at No 10 amid calls for more to be done to block images of child sex abuse and to stop children viewing pornography.
Prime Minister David Cameron has said more can be done to remove illegal material from the web and steer children away from legal adult content.
Labour says voluntary controls are not working and parental authority has been undermined by technological change.
Web firms have rejected calls to impose parental filters as a default setting.
'Real threats' Internet service providers in the UK have been at the centre of the debate about online images showing the sexual abuse of children following two high-profile court cases in which offenders were known to have sought child pornography online.
Mark Bridger, sentenced to life in May for the murder of five-year-old April Jones in Machynlleth, Powys, searched for child abuse and rape images.
And police who searched the Croydon home of Stuart Hazell, jailed for life in May for murdering 12-year-old Tia Sharp, said they had found "extensive" pornography featuring young girls.
Continue reading the main story "Start Quote
They are two tribes with power over all of our lives - but politicians and internet companies just don't speak the same language"
End Quote The prime minister has pledged to "put the heat on" companies to make removing obscene material and blocking access to indecent images more of a priority, saying he is not "satisfied" enough is being done.
Tuesday's meeting in Downing Street, to be chaired by Culture Secretary Maria Miller, will be attended by Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, BT, Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Vodafone, O2, EE and Three.
Claire Perry, the Conservative MP who advises the prime minister on the issue, said violent online images were still accessible even though they were outlawed and there was a link between them and horrific crimes committed against children.
"If I have to sit with parents who've had their children taken from them whilst images, the most appalling images, of abuse are then found on those gentlemen's computers, we can't sit by and do nothing about that," she told Channel 5.
Ministers say they also want to make it easier for parents to ensure their children are not exposed to unsuitable material online.
A 2011 review by Mothers Union chief executive Reg Bailey concluded that children were being bombarded by sexual images on the internet, television, music videos and in advertising and it should be much easier for parents to block under-age access online.
Education The body that represents the UK's net suppliers has said filtering tools should be more widely available but it opposes default settings.
The Internet Service Providers Association argues they can be "circumvented" and that education and empowering parents to make safe choices must go hand in hand with technological solutions.
It says it will use the meeting to stress what the industry is already doing to block access to images of child abuse and criminally obscene adult material and to remove them in conjunction with the police.
Mrs Perry said progress was being made on a voluntary basis to ensure adult material could not accessed online in a public place and age verification mechanisms and "one click" filters in place unless parents turned them off were becoming widely available.
"We've done it without regulation; we've done it by working systematically with the industry," she said. "At the moment the filtering work is going really well, and no need for legislation."
The BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones said the internet industry was angry that what it saw as separate issues - illegal child abuse images and children's access to harmful material - were being conflated.
BT said recently that any of its customers attempting to access web pages on the Internet Watch Foundation's list of identified images of child sexual abuse would now see a message telling them that the site was blocked and the reason why.
In a related development, internet search firm Google has said it will help create a database of images to improve collaboration between the police, companies and anti-abuse charities as well as fund developers to improve better tools to block images.
Read in browser » Prison wing 'worst seen for years'
By Anonymous on Jun 17, 2013 09:49 pm 17 June 2013 Last updated at 21:49 ET 
One wing at the jail is 'the worst inspectors had seen for many years' the report said
Part of a South Yorkshire prison housing low category inmates is "the worst establishment seen for many years", according to a report.
A snap inspection of HMP Lindholme at Doncaster in February found drugs and alcohol widely available throughout the prison.
The strongest criticism was of the category D wing, which the report described as "forgotten and neglected".
The National Offender Management Service said the wing was now closed.
The service's chief executive, Michael Spurr said: "We got this wrong and will learn lessons so it does not happen again."
He said the wing had been converted from an Immigration Removal Centre to a category D unit holding 80 adult prisoners "too quickly with insufficient planning".
In its report the HM Inspectorate of Prisons said the jail - along with HMP Moorland and HMP Hatfield in the South Yorkshire cluster - was destined to be run by the private sector.
It said "the uncertainty this created added to the difficulty in running the prison".
Disabled inmate taunted Citing instances where there were religious tensions on the wing inspectors discovered someone had defecated in washing facilities for Muslim prayers.
Described as an "astonishing situation" by the inspectors, more than a third of prisoners interviewed said they had felt unsafe at some time.
In the category C side of the jail, the inspectorate found that the needs of prisoners with disabilities were ignored, including a "distressed" disabled inmate who was "constantly taunted" and bullied for payment if he had to ask for help.
Chief Inspector of Prisons Nick Hardwick said the jail was "cause for real concern"
The low category prison wing singled out for particular criticism had been used as an Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) where people were held awaiting deportation.
On its transfer back to the prison service the report concluded that funding for the wing had been lost and not replaced.
Elsewhere in the prison inspectors found poor procedures for men at risk of suicide or self-harm.
The report said the only support for those victimised by other inmates was an option to confine them to their cells.
Many of those prisoners said their mental health had deteriorated and most were eventually transferred out of the prison with nothing done to tackle the underlying problems.
'Real concern' Inspectors said there was no work or education available on the category D wing, apart from a few domestic duties, and it was difficult for prisoners to see a doctor if they were unwell.
There was some praise for the wider prison's support services, including programmes for those in work, education and training.
The report said much of the training was of good quality and vocational courses in construction or bakery were "outstanding".
Overall, Nick Hardwick, the Chief Inspector of Prisons said HMP Lindholme was "a cause for real concern".
He said: "The closure of the [category] D side has reduced the immediate risks but legitimate prisoner grievances, the lack of activity, mixed staff-prisoner relationships and indications of some religious tensions, combined with the ready availability of drugs and alcohol, are an unhealthy mix.
"The uncertainty created by the prison's move to the private sector cannot be allowed to delay the urgent improvements that are required."
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "This disturbing report shows how quickly and how far a large and complex prison, facing an uncertain future, can go downhill."
Read in browser » Call centres in BBC programme fined
By Anonymous on Jun 18, 2013 02:13 am 17 June 2013 Last updated at 19:13 ET 
Call centres are monitored by the Information Commissioner
Two companies which appear on BBC Three series The Call Centre have been issued with fines related to nuisance calls.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) issued penalties to Nationwide Energy Services of £125,000 and to We Claim You Gain of £100,000.
The ICO said the sums include the first penalties linked to nuisance calls over Payment Protection Insurance.
Both companies said they intended to appeal, saying the fines were not the "appropriate course of action".
Nationwide Energy Services and We Claim You Gain are part of Save Britain Money Ltd, which is based in Swansea.
The penalties were issued in response to 2,700 complaints to the Telephone Preference Service or reports to the ICO using its online survey between May 2011 and the end of December 2012.
The ICO said neither company had carried out adequate checks to see whether the people they were calling had registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).
In a statement, Nationwide Energy Services and We Claim You Gain said they "remain committed to the best interests of our customers at all times".
Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations governing electronic marketing, call centres have to check if people are registered on the TPS.
The call centres run by the companies are the subject of a fly-on-the-wall documentary on BBC Three called The Call Centre. The BBC has declined to comment.
ICO director of operations Simon Entwisle said: "People have the legal right not to receive marketing calls and these companies have paid the price for failing to respect people's wishes."
The ICO has issued fines totalling more than £750,000 to companies who have breached the regulations. It is carrying out 10 more investigations.
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