Egypt protesters defy removal threat
By Anonymous on Jul 28, 2013 02:21 am 28 July 2013 Last updated at 02:21 ET 
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Jim Muir: "It's hard to see how this area can be cleared without further bloodshed"
Supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi have defied threats of removal from their sit-in protest in Cairo, despite the deaths of dozens in clashes with security forces.
Speakers from the pro-Morsi Muslim Brotherhood addressed protesters overnight, saying they would not back down from their demands.
They want Mr Morsi - removed from power by the army on 3 July - reinstated.
But the interior minister has warned them they will "soon" be dispersed.
Meanwhile, the US has expressed deep concern at the bloodshed - the worst since Mr Morsi's ousting.
US Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the violence and called on the Egyptian authorities to respect the right of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression
Passionate speeches Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad el-Haddad told the BBC that "hundreds and thousands of men, women and children" were engaged in the peaceful protest around the Rabaa al-Adawia mosque.
He said: "Regardless of what happens to the president, we will continue our protest. Our numbers are increasing every day. Citizens are recognising the tyranny and the long-term danger of the military coup".
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Dr Hesham Ibrahim says Saturday's scenes at the field hospital were like "hell"
The BBC's Yasmine Abu Khadra, at the scene in Cairo, says it is now quiet at the camp, although the camp has set up its own tight security, with barricades built.
She says that overnight, prominent leaders from the Muslim Brotherhood delivered passionate speeches to raise the morale of the crowd.
Our correspondent says the message was that the police and security forces felt threatened by the sit-in and that was why they had carried out the killings on Saturday.
The speakers said the crowd should not be afraid of the security forces as the protest was for a just cause.
The health ministry puts the death toll from the clashes on Saturday at 78, although doctors estimated that more than 100 people were killed.
Mr Haddad said three types of groups were to blame - "badly dressed thugs, police in three types of uniform and plain-clothed police".
He said the protesters would continue to demand Mr Morsi's reinstatement, adding: "It may take weeks, months, more than a year - we will still hold our ground."
Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim told the supporters to "come to their senses" and go home.
He said lawsuits filed by residents near a mosque provided legal cover for the clearance.
The government has denied that security forces fired live rounds on Saturday, only tear gas.
But the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Cairo says this appears to be untrue given the severity and number of injuries.
Two leading figures who backed the army's removal of Mr Morsi have condemned the killings.
Morsi supporters say they will not back down on demands for his reinstatement
The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar mosque - the highest Sunni Muslim authority in Egypt - has called for an investigation, while the vice-president of the interim government, Mohamed ElBaradei, said that excessive force had been used.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement that he was deeply concerned about the bloodshed.
"In this extremely volatile environment, Egyptian authorities have a moral and legal obligation to respect the right of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression," he said.
Saturday's clashes appear to have begun after some of the Morsi supporters tried to extend the barricades around their protest site, and the security forces responded.
Medics at a nearby field hospital told the BBC they believed about 70% of the casualties were caused by live fire - with many of the victims hit in the chest or head by snipers firing from rooftops.
'Premeditated murder' The army removed Mr Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, after mass protests against his rule and called on supporters to take to the streets to give its action a mandate.
Tens of thousands responded by flooding to Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday night.
Mr Morsi has been formally remanded in custody at an undisclosed location for an initial 15-day period, according to a judicial order.
He has been accused of the "premeditated murder of some prisoners, officers and soldiers" when he and several Muslim Brotherhood leaders were freed during a breakout at a Cairo prison in January 2011.
He is alleged to have plotted attacks on jails in the uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak.
Mr Morsi is also accused of conspiring with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip and has strong links with the Muslim Brotherhood.
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UK migration figures 'a best guess'
By Anonymous on Jul 27, 2013 07:24 pm 27 July 2013 Last updated at 19:24 ET 
Current net migration statistics are "blunt instruments", the MPs said
Official migration figures are "little better than a best guess", a group of influential MPs has warned.
The Public Administration Committee said the statistics were "not fit for purpose" and did not accurately assess how many non-UK residents were entering and leaving the country.
The MPs recommended finding new ways to gather migration information.
The government rejected the committee's conclusions, saying net migration was at its lowest level for decades.
In the year to June 2012, immigration was estimated at 515,000 while emigration was estimated at 352,000.
Net migration - the difference between the number of people entering and leaving the country - was estimated at 163,000.
'Blunt instruments' The coalition has set itself a target to reduce the net migration figure from non-EU countries to less than 100,000 a year by 2015.
But the MPs warned that current net migration statistics produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Home Office were "blunt instruments" and were "not adequate for understanding the scale and complexity of modern migration flows".
In particular the MPs criticised the main source for producing migration figures - the International Passenger Survey (IPS).
It was designed in the early 1960s to examine tourism trends - something it is still used for today - and is based on "random interviews" with travellers at ports and airports.
The Public Administration Committee said just 5,000 migrants a year were identified through the survey and it had a "large margin of error".
It said the migration estimates based on the IPS were "too uncertain" to accurately measure progress against the government's net migration target.
And the IPS fails to gather the type of information needed to work out the social and economic consequences of migration, such as demand for the NHS or schools, the MPs said.
The committee chairman, Conservative Bernard Jenkin, said: "Most people would be utterly astonished to learn that there is no attempt to count people as they enter or leave the UK.
"As an island nation, with professional statisticians and effective border controls, we could gain decent estimates of who exactly is coming into this country, where they come from, and why they are coming here.
"As it is, the top line numbers for the government's 100,000 net migration target are little better than a best guess - and could be out by tens of thousands. Clearly these statistics are not fit for purpose in the longer term."
'Dodgy statistics' The committee said migration figures could be considerably improved if the Home Office and ONS properly recorded and linked the data they already gathered.
They also called for the e-Borders system - which once operational is expected to collect details from passenger lists of all people entering and leaving the UK - to be implemented as quickly as possible.
A Home Office spokesman said: "We disagree with the report's conclusions. Government reforms on immigration are working and the statistics do show that net migration is at its lowest level for a decade.
"The government is determined to build a fairer system and to address the public's concern about immigration.
"We are committed to getting net migration down from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands, and we want to be judged against the very best available evidence."
Shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant said the report cast doubt on the government's claims to have cut net migration.
"People want a bit of honesty on immigration, so the home secretary should look at how to measure immigration more accurately as a matter of urgency," he said.
"Grand speeches, gimmicks and dodgy statistics don't cut much ice, especially when the government still don't even have a plan to count people in and out of the country."
Read in browser » Brazil beach packed for Pope Francis
By Anonymous on Jul 28, 2013 03:02 am 27 July 2013 Last updated at 20:25 ET 
Catholic pilgrims filled Rio's Copacabana Beach
Organisers say about two million people have packed Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the last evening of World Youth Day with Pope Francis.
The night-long vigil service marks the climax of the five-day festival and culminates in a huge Mass on Sunday.
The Pope is coming to the end of a week-long visit to Brazil.
On Saturday, the Pope challenged the Roman Catholic clergy to leave the comfort of their churches and reach out to the poor and the marginalised.
He also told authorities and civil society leaders to use dialogue as an alternative to "selfish indifference and violent protests".
Brazil has seen several violent demonstrations in the past month.
The vigil on Copacabana Beach marked the penultimate day of the Pope's visit to Brazil.
Correspondents said that by the time his car reached the stage, the back seat was filled with soccer jerseys, flags and flowers thrown to him by adoring pilgrims lining the route.
As the crowd grew, female activists held a demonstration nearby in support of abortion and women's rights.
'Go to the favelas' Earlier, the Pope addressed civil leaders and government officials at Rio's Municipal Theatre.
"Between selfish indifference and violent protest, there is always another possible option: that of dialogue," he said, in a reference to demonstrations that have been rocking the country since June.
"A country grows when constructive dialogue occurs between its many rich cultural components: popular culture, university culture, youth culture, artistic and technological culture, economic culture, family culture and media culture."
Also on Saturday, the Pope repeated his challenge to fellow Roman Catholic clerics to take to the streets.
In a speech to 1,000 bishops and clerics in Rio's cathedral, he said they should go to the favelas - Brazil's shanty towns.
"We cannot keep ourselves shut up in parishes, in our communities, when so many people are waiting for the Gospel," he told the audience.
Protests, sometimes violent, broke out in cities across Brazil last month against corruption, poor public services and the high cost of events like the 2014 World Cup.
The Pope has addressed an estimated two million pilgrims at the prayer vigil on Copacabana Beach
The World Youth Day cross was fixed to the stage ahead of the Pope's arrival
The vigil will culminate in a huge Mass on Sunday
The Pope watched a performance during the vigil service
On Saturday, the Pope wore a headdress given to him by members of the indigenous Pataxo tribe
Read in browser » UK soldiers assist Afghan operation
By Anonymous on Jul 28, 2013 12:09 am 28 July 2013 Last updated at 00:09 ET 
The Ministry of Defence said there had been no British casualties in the operation (file picture)
British soldiers have returned to an area of Afghanistan for a week-long operation to clear Taliban insurgents.
Afghan military commanders requested assistance in Sangin district, an area British forces defended from the Taliban until 2010, earlier this month.
About 80 members of 4th Battalion The Rifles, based at Camp Bastion in Helmand province, were involved.
The Ministry of Defence said some insurgents were killed or captured but there were no British casualties.
Weapons seized According to the Sunday Times, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond had personally authorised the return to the area for British forces.
It said 106 British personnel were killed in fighting there between 2006 and 2010.
The paper said the threat to the troops was considered so great that, at the MoD's request, it delayed reporting the operation until it had finished.
The British involvement was part of a major operation by 215 Corps of the Afghan National Army (ANA) to clear insurgents in the Sangin district of Helmand Province, in the south.
The operation saw troops from the UK-mentored 3/215 Brigade move north into Sangin, clearing compounds and seizing insurgent weapon stashes alongside soldiers from 2/215 Brigade.
The Brigade Advisory Group, made up of 4th Battalion The Rifles, provided support to 3/215 Brigade.
During the operation, more than 30 improvised explosive devices were found and destroyed by the ANA, and two insurgent vehicles were seized along with ammunition and weapons.
'Challenging area' The Ministry of Defence said UK personnel occasionally operated outside of the usual British area of operations in central Helmand in an advisory capacity.
"These out-of-area operations have been a long-standing element of the UK mission in Afghanistan and are completely in line with our current role of providing training, advice and assistance to the Afghan National Security Forces," a spokesman said.
"Between 2006 and 2010, UK forces provided vital security for the population of Sangin, disrupting the insurgency in an area the Taliban had considered its heartland, preventing the spread of violence elsewhere, upholding the authority of the Afghan government in the area and enabling economic development to take place.
"Much was achieved then and has been since. It remains a challenging area and it is now for the Afghan forces to deal with the residual insurgency."
Brig Rupert Jones, Commander Task Force Helmand, said the operation had demonstrated further how effective 3/215 Brigade of the ANA had become.
"Operating in Sangin over the past week, they have moved to another level of performance and independence," he said.
"It has been a very impressive demonstration of what the Afghan National Army can be capable of."
Read in browser » Spain train driver to be questioned
By Anonymous on Jul 27, 2013 11:10 pm 27 July 2013 Last updated at 23:10 ET 
The crash was one of the worst rail disasters in recent Spanish history
The driver of a train that crashed near the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela on Wednesday killing 78 people is due to appear before a judge.
Francisco Jose Garzon Amo has been detained on suspicion of reckless homicide and the judge will decide whether to press formal charges.
Mr Garzon is suspected of driving too fast on a bend.
Reports say the train was travelling at more than double the speed limit at the time of the crash.
Mr Garzon, 52, was pictured being escorted away from the wreckage by police, blood pouring from a head injury. He left hospital on Saturday and was immediately taken to the central police station in Santiago.
He has so far refused to make a statement or answer questions.
Francisco Jose Garzon Amo suffered a head injury in the crash
Sunday's court hearing will be closed but the judge will decide whether to remand the driver as an official suspect, release him on bail, or free him without charge.
If the judge finds enough evidence for a criminal trial, Mr Garzon will be charged and a date set.
At least 130 people were taken to hospital after the accident and 30 remained in a critical condition on Saturday.
All eight carriages of the train - packed with more than 200 passengers - careered off the tracks into a concrete wall as they sped around the curve on the express route between Madrid and the port city of Ferrol on the Galician coast.
Leaking diesel burst into flames in some of the carriages.
The train's data recording "black box" is with the judge in charge of the investigation. Officials have so far not said how fast the train was going when it derailed.
Continue reading the main story Spanish train crashes
- August 2006: Inter-city train derails in Villada, in the province of Palencia, killing six people and injuring dozens more
- July 2006: At least 43 people killed in a metro train crash in the Valencia area
- 1972: Andalusia crash leaves between 76 and 86 people dead.
- 1944: Hundreds believed dead after a crash in Torre del Bierzo, in Leon province - official account gave the figure as 78 killed.
Gonzalo Ferre, president of Spanish rail network administrator Adif, said the driver should have started slowing the train 4km (2.5 miles) before the spot where the accident happened.
The president of Spanish train operator Renfe, Julio Gomez Pomar, has said that the train had no technical problems.
He said the driver had 30 years' experience with the company and had been operating trains on the line for more than a year.
People from several nationalities were among the injured, including five US citizens and one Briton. One American was among the dead.
Some victims have had to be identified using DNA matches due to the extent of their injuries.
PM Mariano Rajoy, who hails from the city of the crash, declared three days of official mourning on Thursday.
The crash was one of the worst rail disasters in Spanish history.
Read in browser » Mali due to vote for president
By Anonymous on Jul 28, 2013 12:02 am 27 July 2013 Last updated at 23:12 ET 
"Vote hope" is the message daubed on this sign in Kidal, Mali
Polls are due to open across Mali for a presidential election aimed at reuniting the country after months of political turmoil.
Security will be tight, with many areas still recovering after a northern rebellion and coup that resulted in foreign military intervention.
There are 27 candidates and if no outright winner emerges, the voting goes to a second round on 11 August.
However, some observers have questioned whether Mali is ready for the election.
Continue reading the main story Mali crisis timeline
- October 2011: Ethnic Tuaregs launch new rebellion after returning with weapons from Libya, where they had fought for Gaddafi
- March 2012: Military officers depose President Amadou Toumani Toure over handling of rebellion
- April 2012: Tuareg and Islamist fighters seize control of northern Mali, declare independence
- June 2012: Islamist groups capture towns of Timbuktu, Kidal and Gao from Tuaregs, start to destroy Muslim shrines that offend their puritan views
- January 2013: Islamist fighters advance south, raising fears they could march on capital. Interim President Dioncounda Traore asks France for help. France intervenes, along with neighbouring countries. Northern towns recaptured
- April 2013: France and Chad begin to withdraw
- July 2013: State of emergency lifted. Mali troops re-enter Kidal. Deployment of a UN peace force to incorporate the West African force on the ground. Nationwide elections due
Hundreds of thousands of people in the north were displaced by fighting. The majority of them will not be able to vote.
Islamist militants in the north have also warned Muslims not to take part and have threatened to attack polling stations.
There are also concerns about the fairness of the electoral process in the northern town of Kidal, which is still occupied by Tuareg rebels.
Tuareg gunmen were suspected of abducting electoral officials in the northern Tessalit area last week as they handed out voter identification cards. The officials were later released.
French troops are still deployed in the area with Chadian forces as part of the UN stabilisation force, Minusma.
Candidates in Sunday's election include three former prime ministers, a former finance minister and one woman.
The frontrunners include Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, prime minister from 1994 to 2000, who founded his own party, the Rally for Mali (RPM), in 2001.
At his final rally in the capital Bamako on Friday, Mr Keita - known as IBK - appealed for a calm election day and vowed to ensure that "no-one will make fun of Mali again".
His biggest rival is seen as Soumaila Cisse, who founded his own party, the Union for the Republic and Democracy (URD), in 2003.
Mr Cisse has called for the junta that seized power in 2012 to be cleared from the political scene.
Analysts say Soumana Sacko, another former prime minister, can expect a good showing if there is no clear winner.
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